Poverty is the most
painful experience in human life.
The pain of poverty
cannot be compared with anything else.
Pain of poverty is
both physical and psychological. One is mentally and physically tortured.
Everybody and everything around him seems to inflict pain on him because he is
poor.
Who has the best
knowledge of poverty?
Hunger is incomparable
pain. Hunger is an associate of poverty. If I ask who has the best knowledge of
hunger, many of us would raise hands. But it is not true that we have tasted real
hunger ever in our life.
Only those who
suffered hunger because of poverty have ever tasted hunger.
As a religious
practice, I used to observe fasting for two or three days. At occasions, I have
observed fasting for more than three days. I have not eaten any food during
those days. I surely felt hunger. I tasted hunger.
But was it the real
taste of hunger? NO.
It was a religious
observance.
The great saint Sree
Budha of India was a prince. He later renounced everything and sat in
meditation for many days, without food and drink. He was said to be enlightened
with the knowledge about the secret of suffering. He proclaimed that craving is
the cause of suffering. So he renounced his kingship, riches and luxuries in
life. He took the life of a beggar and advised his disciples to live like
beggars.
His life is a good
example for renunciation.
But has he ever tasted
real poverty? NO.
Real poverty is not
caused by renunciation of richness that we already have. It is lack of a livelihood
in spite of hard struggles.
Real hunger is not
renunciation of food; it is lack of food though one suffers to have little.
There is the pain.
There is the real want. There is the torture and suffering.
You wish to have,
suffered to have, struggled to have; but have not.
While others are
eating stomach full, you wish to have at least the left out. But you are chased
away even from the left out.
It is real hunger. The
pain of hunger is incomparable.
It is not the hunger
felt by the religious practitioners who renounce food for a short time.
It is not a part of
religious practice; it is not a religious observance.
It is not missing a
meal while you are away from home busy in the works.
It is not getting late
in a journey.
It is the lack of
food; it is denying food; it is a fruitless craving for food.
Have you ever tasted
real hunger?
I am sure, most of us
do not.
Feed the poor, at
least one in a day. Give food to a beggar.
If you are busy, trust
someone to feed a poor person each day for you.
There is nothing
comparable with the pain of poverty and hunger.
Further reading:
Professor
Jacob Abraham
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