A Practical Program for Basic Needs

JAYADVAITA DASA: The building in Mayapur is wonderful. Westerners like us can come here, live without inconvenience and advance in Krsna consciousness. What is Prabhupada stressing for India now?

TAMALA KRSNA GOSVAMĪ: Now our program is slowly starting to shift. Our movement is definitely number one in India. Everyone acknowledges that there is no other movement so substantial, at this particular time, as our movement.

JAYADVAITA DASA: Spiritually.

TAMALA KRSNA GOSVAMĪ: Spiritually! Everyone has now acknowledged that this is the number-one movement and that Prabhupada is the number-one guru in the world. The Indian people acknowledge that fact, clearly. So now that he's established our movement's prestige as first class and has gotten this land, which establishes our structure, he's especially working for the benefit of the masses. And the way is by food distribution. That is the method of approach. Feed a man, give him krsna-prasada [sanctified food] and let him engage in the kirtana [chanting] and arati [temple worship]. That can gradually help thousands and thousands of people, not only by relieving their hunger but by reviving their Krsna consciousness. Because if anyone comes to our prasada distribution program, that means he's hungry. If he is hungry, that means he can't listen to philosophy. If his hunger is not satisfied, he'll never become Krsna conscious. This is the point. If we just went around with a program of speaking and kirtana, they'd come once or twice, but they wouldn't see its practical value. But if you give them prasada daily, with kirtana and speaking, eventually you can convince them, "Look, this is the most practical way of life. Why don't you just live with us completely and work with us?" This is the program.

Practically speaking, many people in India are hungry. Not only can't they afford to purchase the necessary food to feed their families, but staple foods are no longer available in the larger cities of India. For example, the major cities Bombay and Calcutta, as well as many other cities of India, are now passing through a crisis period, in which there is no wheat available whatsoever. The basic food, called chapati, which goes along with every meal, just as in the West there is bread, is made from this wheat, but no wheat is available. And when it is available it is mixed with sawdust. Then, too, the rice being sold is of a terribly inferior quality. No one even wants to use it. Rice is another basic staple of the Indian diet. So with such important necessities as rice and wheat not available, people are literally starving here in India. Therefore we are organizing on an international basis to bring foodstuffs here to India that are very plentiful in other countries of the world. We are arranging for wheat, milk powder and other surplus foodstuffs from America, Canada and Australia.