Caring for Guests

Caring for Guests
By Rohiëénandana Däsa
SOMETIMES WHEN my family and I prepare for the arrival of guests, our home becomes a flurry of activity. We all like to take part in some way. As we clean, cook, decorate, put flowers in vases, do extra shopping, and discuss where our guests will stay, the atmosphere in our cottage is surcharged with giving, excitement, and cooperation. The day soon becomes a festival.
Any stresses and strains between me and my wife, Rädhä Priyä, or between the children become eased (or at least postponed). My heart becomes enlarged and relaxed in a mood of abundance, and I feel happy.
The children are happy too—because they know there will be something special cooking in the kitchen. Food is about the nub of it. There is something special, anywhere in the world, when people invite you into their home and share their food with you.
I once saw two Chinese illustrations of heaven and hell. In heaven many people were sitting around, each with a bowl of rice and long chopsticks, happily feeding each other. In hell they just tried to feed themselves.
In the Vedic tradition it is customary to invite guests for the main meal of the day. If by chance a man has no guest, Vedic custom prescribes that he should go into the street and call out, “If anyone is hungry, please come and dine with us!” In Vedic society every guest, even an enemy, is seen as Kåñëa's representative. An unexpected guest (atithi) especially provides the host the opportunity to think, “Maybe this guest has been sent by the Lord Himself.”
Sharing prasädam, food prepared for and offered to Kåñëa, helps expand our consciousness—from seeing only the needs of the immediate circle of our own family to seeing that every living being belongs to the wide, wide circle of Kåñëa's family. Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura sings, kåñëera saàsära kari cäòi anäcära: If you want to enter the spiritual world, practice being in Kåñëa's family in this world.
Gåhasthas, married people—who are advised by the Bhagavad-gétä to give charity—especially have a great opportunity to taste the ecstasy of being in Kåñëa's family by taking care of Kåñëa's guests. The guests are Kåñëa's guests because our homes belong to Kåñëa and we are His servants. When we openheartedly welcome and take care of the needs and comforts of our guests, we certainly draw their good wishes and blessings. And if our guests are pleased by our Kåñëa conscious reception, we can assume that Kåñëa is pleased. Apart from chanting Hare Kåñëa, what is a more enjoyable way to make spiritual progress?

Rohiëénandana Däsa lives in southern England with his wife and their three children. Write to him in care of Back to Godhead.