By Chaitanya Charana Dasa
Suppose you are the friend of a millionaire. One day you see your friend's estranged son wandering on the streets, drunk, disheveled, diseased, distressed, and starving. When someone offers him food, he gulps it down and continues his aimless wandering. Then someone else comes and gives him a new set of clothes. He happily wears the clothes, but still remains lost and forsaken. Someone else gives him free medicine, which provides him some relief but no permanent solace. Then you seat him in your car, take him home, bathe and feed him, and treat his ailments. When he has sobered, you talk with him lovingly, explaining his father's great affection for him. You clarify and remove the misunderstanding that strained their relationship. And when he is ready, you take him back to his father's mansion, where he is fed the best food, given an entire wardrobe of clothes, and attended to by a team of expert doctors. His reunion with his father has solved so many problems. Material welfare workers are like the people who offered food, clothing, and medicine to the lost son, whereas the devotee is like the father's friend, who took the son back to his father.
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