Narayanan Krishnan ~ CNN Hero and True Devotee of God

“Human compassion should never decay or perish…. The spirit of helping others must prevail forever.” ~ Narayanan Krishnan

Narayanan Krishnan, in the kitchen where he cooks for 400 people three times a day, every day

Young Narayanan Krishnan was on his way to landing a dream job working as a restaurant chef in Switzerland. But just a few days before he was to leave the country, he visited his hometown of Madurai one last time. While on his way to a temple, he saw something that shook him to his core. He saw an old homeless man, eating his own waste matter out of desperation.

There are many people who would probably just feel disgust at such a sight, and would hurry to leave the area. But Krishnan’s reaction was different; in addition to feeling stunned and shocked, he felt hurt.  In his own words, “It really hurt me so much. I was literally shocked….”

The earthquake of that chance encounter with a starving homeless man shook Krishnan’s life plans to the ground and completely rearranged his entire concept of himself and his purpose in life. After the last mental aftershocks had subsided, Krishnan began to reorganize his life. Before, he was accustomed to cooking for the fortunate wealthy in a five-star restaurant; now, he began cooking for the homeless and mentally ill people of Madurai. He founded the nonprofit “Akshaya Trust” and poured his entire life’s savings into his efforts to feed upwards of 400 people three times a day.

Working over the last eight years, Krishnan has now cooked over one million meals! Not only does Krishnan cook, deliver and sometimes feed the people himself, he also carries haircutting equipment so that he can give a haircut and shave to anyone who needs it. Through this simple yet touching and intimate service, Krishnan helps the homeless to feel a little more human, a little more dignified. Please take a moment to watch this inspiring video.

As I watched this, there were several things that really struck me, and I feel this inspiring story illustrates some absolutely essential points about Sanatana Dharma – the eternal and true spirituality that informs the various Hindu traditions.

“What is the ultimate purpose of life? It’s to give.” First, when Krishnan saw the old man eating his own waste, his first thought after getting over the shock was “What is the purpose of my life?” In an instant he came to the conclusion that the purpose of his life was to give – to give food, and to give love. This is so beautiful, and this giving really is the core of spirituality, in my opinion. In the Vedas, we are told that “Paropakarartham idam sariram.” This beautiful and succinct teaching tells us that the purpose of our body, the purpose of our very incarnation on Mother Earth, is “paropakara,” or selfless service to living beings.

So right away, Krishnan has hit on the most essential nerve of Sanatana Dharma, or Hindu spirituality. Not everyone needs to give up their life and start cooking for hundreds like Krishnan did, but the Vedas tell us that we all must find some way to serve others, whether through our words, our prayers and meditation, our charity, our cooking, our healing abilities, our volunteer work, or whatever it may be. We all have something to offer, and it is our divine purpose to offer what we can.

Krishnan feeds a homeless man with loving care and affection

Food is physical nourishment, but love and affection are “mental nutrition.” The next thing that struck me was Krishnan’s loving tenderness as he hugged, bathed, and even fed the homeless by hand. He himself mentions how we can give food as physical nourishment and love and affection as mental nourishment. This is really so special. He’s not just serving people because it’s a “duty” or a religious proscription. He’s doing it with such genuine love and respect. His service is the overflowing of the love in his heart, and this is truly how our service should be.

In one other video I saw, Krishnan touched the feet of one of the elderly homeless men and then touched his eyes. In the Hindu tradition, this is a gesture of highest respect, and is generally done to images of God, holy people, teachers, and sometimes to one’s parents or elders. This one image shows Krishnan’s remarkable humility and respect. He is not serving with the attitude that he is great and he is the one giving to the less fortunate or less worthy; he is serving with the highest respect and love for the people he feeds. This is the real ideal of selfless service.

“I am just a human being. For me, everybody is the same.” This may be a touchy subject, but Krishnan himself raises it. In another video he mentions that he is from an orthodox brahmin family, and that there are a “lot of objections,” since according to custom, brahmins are not supposed to touch the kind of people that Krishnan is hugging, feeding, and bathing. But once again, Krishnan’s pure mind has pierced right to the heart of the matter; he says, “I am just a human being. To me, everybody is the same.”

There are many good reasons why orthodox brahmins are supposed to behave in the ways that they do. It has to do with maintaining a kind of energetic purity and keeping the aura free from negativity so that they can perform their religious and spiritual functions in the highest way. So brahmins are supposed to wake early, take a bath every day, wear clean clothes, chant certain mantras and maintain a certain discipline that creates purity and harmony for their entire community. They also must avoid the energy of death, killing, or “impure” forms of matter like feces or trash.

However, my feeling is that these kinds of purity guidelines should never be used as an excuse not to give food or loving service to those who most desperately need it, and Krishnan demonstrates this point so beautifully. Yes, it’s good if brahmins maintain their spiritual traditions, but there must be love animating those traditions, not some  rigid notion of caste purity for purity’s sake alone.

The famous Minakshi Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Krishnan is performing the true worship of God. It’s interesting that Krishnan was on his way to a temple when he saw the fateful old man. It’s not mentioned, but it makes sense that he would have been on his way to the Minakshi Temple, the most famous one in Madurai. So he was on his way to see Divine Mother in the Minakshi Temple, but he saw her instead in form of the old man. Perhaps he would have offered a coconut or fruits in the temple, but instead he began offering food to the homeless, destitute and mentally ill. In most temples, some kind of abhishekam, or ritual bathing, is performed as a very auspicious ceremony that brings great blessings. Perhaps Krishnan would have sponsored the abhishekam to Divine Mother, but instead of bathing the image of Mother, he began bathing the homeless with the same love and care.

In my mind, this is the real Devi abhishekam, the real food offering to Divine Mother, to give such loving service to our fellow human beings, especially when they are truly helpless and without hope. In the Hindu tradition, feeding people or animals is considered one of the best offerings one can make. One reason for this is that food is absolutely necessary to all life forms. We can survive without money, education, or even clothes as long as we have food. Because life depends on food for its very existence, feeding those who are truly hungry means that we are saving a life, and this is a very rare, precious and noble service to offer.

Mother Annapurna is offering food to Lord Siva, who has come begging for his sustenance

We can all help Krishnan in his noble task. Not everyone knows how to cook ven pongal or sambar for 400 people! But even so, we can all join hands together and, together with Narayanan Krishnan, help feed the destitute homeless and mentally ill people of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Krishnan has sacrificed everything to help the homeless of Madurai. Instead of living in his ancestral home, he rents it out to help support Akshaya Trust’s activities, and he sleeps on the floor of the kitchen where he cooks all the food. If he is making this kind of sacrifice, surely we can sacrifice a Mocha Latte or chocolate bar here and there, so that others may eat proper food each day.

Please visit the Akshaya Trust website if you’d like to learn more or make a donation. There is also a US-based website. It costs so very little to feed the poor in India, and foreign currency goes a very long way to help these people who have no other help. If you are in India, you can make your donation here. If outside of India, you may donate here.

“What is the ultimate purpose of life? It’s to give. Start giving; see the joy of giving!” ~ Narayanan Krishnan, CNN Hero and true devotee of God