Arcana Siddhi Devi Dasi and her husband Karnamrita Das
I think Srila Prabhupada’s emphasis is that our time shouldn’t be spent doing mundane welfare work such as opening hospitals, feeding the poor (because others are already doing that) rather we should help people find a comprehensive solution to all their problems. The problem is not hunger, but the problem is identifying with a body that is here today and gone tomorrow. If we feed someone today, they will still be hungry tomorrow, but if we connect them to source of all resources, they will have all their bodily and spiritual needs met simultaneously forever.
Devotees of course shouldn’t be callous to humanities suffering, but our job isn’t to give comfort to the body without nurturing the soul. We should do both if we have the means and we see this happening as more resources become available to the society of vaisnavas.
We can’t change material conditions of others but the svarupa shakti, the Lord’s energy can. When devotees interact with others and these persons have a positive experience, that will give them sukriti to start their spiritual journey. So you can’t really separate out the two.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur would often say the way to make advancement is Harinam and jiva doya–chanting and kindness to all living entities. So we have to see people as souls and give them spiritual affection and friendship.
Material affection is the root cause of us taking birth again and again, to bring us back to this world of birth and death, and spiritual affection will liberate us. We have to have society, friendship and love (as Srila Prabhupada often said) and if we don’t find it with the devotees, then we will surely leave and find it else where. Thus we should feel joy in the company of devotees and if we aren’t joyful in the association of devotees, then something is wrong with our conception and practice.
Detachment and renunciation can be useful in the beginning of bhakti, but if one continues to nurture those qualities, one becomes hard hearted.
There are material sentiments and there are spiritual sentiments. When Krishna is in the center of our relationships, those relationships become spiritualized. The cowherd boys love Krishna, but they love each other too. Their love for Krishna is considered a sancari bhava which helps to nourish and enrich one’s feelings for Krishna. So there is unlimited ever expanding love for everything and everyone in the spiritual world. The more bodies and minds become spiritualized through the process of bhakti, the more we have the capacity to expand our loving sentiments to others. So from an advanced vaisnava, you will feel so much affection. Srila Prabhupada was such an amazing example of this. So the positive would be to keep Krishna in the center of all of your relationships.
Arcana Siddhi Devi Dasi
