God in the smile of poor

That was a large temple not far from my house. Though not as famous and rich as Tirupati it attracted large number of devotees. I visit this temple on Sundays to offer my prayers. The short road to the temple was lined with petty shops on both sides. As in other temples here too one witnessed beggars young and old, blind and maimed seated on either side of the entrance. The shrill pleadings for alms chased the devotees till they entered the portal of the temple. The security men at the gate would not allow these hapless to enter the temple. Being a day of leisure, I do not rush through the several sanctum sanctorum of gods and goddesses. I sit and watch the people, how they pray, how they call out the names of gods, their singing when arati is done and their intensity of devotion by their body language.
I saw a middle aged man well clad in white kurta and pyjama standing ahead of me in the line for prasad. He appeared well to do. The temple being affluent with large donations from the people was generous in the distribution of prasad. Unlike other temples where the quantity given was hardly the size of a ping pong ball, it was the size of a large orange here. After collecting the ksheera (halwa) that oozed with ghee, I sat in a corner to savour it when I chanced to see the white dressed man emptying hurriedly the prasad from his hand into an ever silver vessel. I watched him with curiosity as he rushed to a tap nearby to wash his hands and stand in the line again to collect the Prasad. He came again with the prasad to put it in the vessel only to rush to the line again. This process went on half a dozen times. I was very angry at the shameless and selfish man appropriating a large portion of the prasad for himself. However I did not see him take even a morsel out of it. I smothered the urge in me to accost him to give a bit of my mind. I waited to watch his activities a little more.
He hurriedly went round the temple with me closely following him. When he went out of the temple with the vessel in hand all the beggars as if in anticipation sat down quietly in the line. He went on distributing the prasad along with a rupee coin patiently to each and every one with a genuine smile in his face. I was struck with wonder at the strange behaviour of this man and felt ashamed at the hasty conclusion I had made. It mattered little to him what others felt about his action as he verily saw in the smiles of these poor people the Gods residing in the temple