WHEN PHILANTHROPY AND SEVA COME NATURALLY

On a bitterly cold January evening a group of devotees of Saint Jalaram are serving hot nutritious food to the homeless and destitute in the Holborn area of London. University students too can be seen in the queues. Saint Jalaram was born in 1799 in Gujarat.

- NITIN MEHTA

He spent his life feeding the poor. Today his followers in many parts of the world follow his example. Not far from the Jalaram group, the Hare Krishna devotees are also serving food. Young City workers go to the nearby Hare Krishna temple and help prepared Khichri and other food items. They have been doing this Seva for years every day. Inspired by their Guru Srila Prabhpada who wanted Prasadam distribution in all area near a Mandir,  devotees in many countries feed the needy.  Steven P. Jacobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple who helped usher in the era of personal computers and then led a cultural transformation by creating devices that changed how people use electronics and revolutionized the computer, music and mobile-phone industries, mentioned how he used to go for a Hare Krishna prasadam feast every Sunday when he was in a very bad situation. Akshay Patra which too is inspired by Srila Prabhupada distributes hot food to tens of thousands of children in India. They also have a presence in the UK. Thousands of miles away in Kenya, Hindu and Jain groups go to villages and distribute food items and grains to the poor. Indian’s in Kenya sponsor free education, free medical care and even scholarships. They help orphanages and disabled children. Interestingly the great philanthropic organisations like the Lions and Rotarians are also dominated by Indian’s in East Africa. Supported by the UK based Indian’s who previously lived in East Africa the Lions are building a state of the art eye hospital in the city of Kisumu, Kenya.