Srila Prabhupada asks, ”Where Bhagavad-gita it is said, “Serving the poor?” You are yourself poor. So how you can serve?”
Prabhupada: This has become a slogan, “Serving the poor.” Where is the sastra? Where Bhagavad-gita it is said, “Serving the poor?” You are yourself poor. So how you can serve? This slogan has spread, “If I serve the poor…” And what you have got, you will serve the poor? You have to work like an ass to earn your livelihood, and you are going to serve the poor. Service to be rendered to the higher authority.
Indian man : By serving poor, you are serving yourself.
Prabhupada: No. Serving nobody. Swami Nikhilananda of Ramakrishna Mission, when I went to America, I met him. He said that “The Americans are asking that ‘You take money from us for serving the poor. But when we go to India, we simply see poor men are lying on the footpath. So what you are doing with this money?’ ” You see? This is a plea for collection of money, “to serve the poor.” Yes. I know in America there are so many foundations. You see? And there are so many cheats also. They form a society, and the managers of the foundation, they have got plea, and they get out all the money. I have seen it. Yes. They have made a clique with the managers of the foundation, and they present by literature, and the subject matter is India: “Oh, so many people are starving.” In this way they take money from the managers, and it is divided amongst themselves.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Morning Walk — March 23, 1974, Bombay