Service to Lord Vs Charity to Society
The human life is precious and meant for realization and service to Lord and need not be ended for the sake of meaningless social service (Pravrutti). Therefore if the guest is only a human being and not the Lord, at this point itself, the guest should be warned. The second part of food was given to the guest but the guest still desired for the third part. Now family members have confirmed that the guest is only God who came to test them. Assuming that the guest is greedy he should have been satisfied by the 50% of the food because the other half has to be shared by four hungry devotees like him. Even the top most greedy person will stop at this point. The family members concluded that the guest was the Lord even while serving the 3rd part itself. The conclusion was reinforced when the fourth part was also desired by the guest. Even a person having the nature of a cruel animal also will not ask for the fourth part in that situation because if the fourth part is also eaten, all the four devotees will die with hunger due to his excessive eating.
As expected the guest appeared as the Lord and gave them Brahma Loka. Suppose the guest was really a cruel animal in nature and really cheated the family of Saktuprastha and went away after eating the entire food. What will happen? The guest will be punished by God with suitable action. Saktuprastha and his family members missed the Lord by a sharp margin only. Their total sacrifice was towards the Lord only in their minds. Therefore the Lord will protect them and give the Brahma Loka. Therefore there is no loss if you miss the Lord by a sharp margin because you have put all your efforts in the analysis and did not believe everybody blindly in doing the sacrifice.
Therefore we should start first with the social service limiting ourselves to one part for charity. The family members should divide the property giving one equal share to the justice. The charity is only Pravrutti but still it is related to God if you select a deserving devotee as a receiver. Even the Lord in human form will test you in the Pravrutti only in the beginning. He will appear as a deserving devotee and will test you in Pravrutti. If you cannot climb the first step of Pravrutti, how can you suddenly climb Nivrutti? If the Lord appears in the beginning itself, everybody in the world will fall at His feet surrendering everything. Therefore the Lord will come first as a deserving receiver in Pravrutti. Sometimes the Lord comes as undeserving receiver so that He is testing you about your knowledge of Pravrutti. If you are serving the undeserving person, the Lord will be displeased with you even though he is in the disguise of same undeserving person. Avoiding a charity to undeserving person and doing charity to the deserving person are the two important steps of Pravrutti. The knowledge of both these aspects constitutes the Pravrutti.
People blindly do charity without discrimination. Such charity is ignorance and sometimes results in the accumulation of sin, if the receiver is undeserving. These ignorant donors support themselves in the name of kindness to everybody. Kindness to the deserving person is appreciated by God because it is for the welfare of the society. Kindness to the undeserving person harms the society and you are purchasing the sin. If you give milk to the serpent it will bite you and others. By this the balance of the society is lost and for this you are responsible and you will be punished by God. Therefore the analysis and knowledge are necessary in the charity as the primary step. The Veda says that one should have analysis and discrimination of the receiver before doing the charity (Samvida deyam). The hunger of a serpent should not be sympathized because it will never change its nature. If you are following the Pravrutti (dharma), the good qualities and devotion should be seen in the receiver. The devotion is more important than good qualities, but if the devotion is selfless the good qualities naturally exist. The devotion of a selfish devotee is not true love on God. Ravana was a great devotee but his devotion is selfish and therefore such devotion is not true. If you are serving the devotees in Pravrutti, God will certainly come to you one day in the form of a devotee. Without Pravrutti, Nivrutti is not possible. When God comes in human form, certainly He will give you a hint of identification. If you are having the spiritual knowledge, you will certainly catch Him. He will neither cover Himself completely nor reveal Himself completely. He will be like a tough problem with a hint.
