‘Sanatan Dharma’s’ Innate Ethic – #Offering Food To The Needy# -: Results in Massive Food Relief Effort By ISKCON, in War-Torn Areas
Food Relief Effort -: By Bhaktivedanta Manor
Bhaktivedanta Manor’s Manager Premaniketana das and security man Lila Jagannath das have traveled to Hungary to help the devotee community there to distribute vegetarian food (prasad) as well as practical supplies to the needy. Hungary, which shares a border with war-torn Ukraine, has far so received over 145,000 tired, hungry and desperate refugees, mostly women and children.
11th March 2022 – By Premaniketana das:
“Today we travelled to the Ukrainian border. The experience is shocking. People walk out from their country tired and hungry. They have nothing left. Four months old baby in hand in the freezing cold. Today it was -2 Celsius. People don’t see a future. They have lost everything. They were very grateful for our help…”
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FOOD RELIEF FOR REFUGEES in Hungary
As far as food distribution is concerned, the Food for Life Hungary team has also been on a marathon feeding refugees on the Ukraine / Hungarian border and in refugee shelters in Budapest and in the countryside as well, on the request of the local government or the owners of the shelters, daily distributing between 600 – 2,000 plates of hot prasadam, alongside fruit, bread and biscuits.
On the request of the Indian Embassy, Food for Life also took part in Operation Ganga, feeding thousands of Indian students fleeing Ukraine into Hungary. At the peak of the operation they were delivering 1,500 hot meals, altogether delivering 6,000 plates of hot food to them.
All this on top of their regular Food for Life activities to the Hungarian population, 2,000 hot meals daily – local congregation devotees were drafted in to assist with the increased seva.
More recently prasadam distribution to refugees has been focused on 2 train stations in Budapest and 6 refugee centers scattered across Hungary, averaging around 600 hot meals daily, soon to increase to 900 as more refugee centers are established as a result of the increasing number of new arrivals.
We would like to thank our congregation for their kind help, and also our sponsors and supporters for assisting us in this time of need.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to Sri Sri Radha Syamasundara!
Food for Life -: Kharkiv
Food for Life Kharkiv.
6 spots of food distribution were arranged.
Up to 30 volunteers were engaged.
1300 portions of food were distributed.
900 buns/cakes/sweets, etc were distributed.
https://t.me/foodForLifeKh
Food for Life -: Kyiv
Food for Life Kyiv.
8 spots of food distribution were arranged.
Up to 100 volunteers were engaged.
942 portions of food were distributed.
https://www.instagram.com/food.for.life.kyiv/
The United Forces -: FOOD FOR LIFE
The United Forces FOOD FOR LIFE, the report for March 09, 2022
48 Food Distribution Spots arranged
Up to 400 volunteers engaged
6662 portions of food distributed
3704 buns/cakes/sweets etc. distributed
https://www.instagram.com/foodforlife_ukraine/
Food for Life -: Dnipro
Food for Life Dnipro.
18 spots of food distribution were arranged.
More than 100 volunteers were engaged.
1700 portions of food were distributed.
https://www.instagram.com/food_for_life_dnipro/
Ukraine / Polish border – Day 7
Ukraine / Polish border – Day 7
Reported by -: Parasuram das
The Army, the Police, the Fire Brigade and the Ambulance teams all engaged
in Prasad distribution.
When you go through extreme conditions on a mutual goal, you start to make real friendships amongst people who don’t even speak the same language. We start sharing food, sharing wood, sharing facilities, in -15 degree temperatures.
At first the Polish soldiers were a bit aloof from us but as time went on they appreciated our Prasad distribution and spontaneously got involved.
Refugees fleeing their homes were waiting up to 2 days to cross the border in below zero temperatures, they were delighted with a plate of hot delicious prasad.
One lady with 2 small kids explained how she arrived at the border at 5pm and crossed the next morning at 6am, chilled to the bone, she remarked:
“the soldiers were shooting bullets at me and now you are feeding me, I’ll never forget your kindness”.
The devotees were staying as late as 11.30pm serving meals and rising at 4a.m. to start all over again.
2,600 plates of Prasad distributed daily
What the Ancient Vedic Scriptures say :-
samah satrau ca mitre ca
tatha manapamanayoh
sitosna-sukha-duhkhesu
samah sanga-vivarjitah
tulya-ninda-stutir mauni
santusto yena kenacit
aniketah sthira-matir
bhaktiman me priyo narah
“One who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equiposed in honor and
dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who is
always free from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything,
who doesn’t care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged
in devotional service, is very dear to Me”.
More photos: https://bit.ly/3KCYYod
About ISKCON -:
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organisation.[1] ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.[2] Its core beliefs are based on Hindu scriptures, particularly the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata Purana, and the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which has had adherents in India since the late 15th century and American and European devotees since the early 1900s.[3]
The organization was formed to spread the practice of Bhakti yoga, the practice of love of God in which those involved (bhaktas) dedicate their thoughts and actions towards pleasing Krishna, whom they consider the Supreme Lord.[5] Its most rapid expansions in membership as of 2007[needs update] have been within India and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in Russia and the rest of the formerly Soviet-aligned states of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.[6]
Today, it has around a million congregational members worldwide with the towering majority situated in India,[7] and despite its relatively small number of followers in the West, it has been described[by whom?] as influential.[8]
ISKCON itself estimates to have “one thousand active devotees living full-time in Canada and the United States and a further 390 initiated devotees on their current lists in Britain.”[9]
In 1974, Srila Prabhupada (1896 – 1977) the founder acharya of ISKCON and the pioneer of the kirtan movement in the West, was alarmed by some commotion outside the window of his room in India. He looked outside to see village children fighting off dogs over scraps of food that had recently been thrown out after a festival feast. The leaf plates still had some rice and curry stuck to them and that was just too much to ignore for these kids. Unfortunately, it was the same for the local street dogs and they wanted those remnants. The children waved sticks and screamed while the dogs sneered with the hair on their backs fully raised. It was war and from the swami’s viewpoint and no one was a winner. He stood there in silence and cried. “How can this be?” he wondered. Feeling guilty that he had just finished his lunch, he called his students to come and see what was happening. “Do you see how hungry those children are?” he told them. “This is a temple of God and where there is God the father there should be no hungry children…No one within a ten-mile radius of our temples should go hungry! Begin feeding these children immediately!”