Srimad Bhagavatham

Rantideva's family was struggling with poverty. They spent many days
even without water to drink. They out of long struggle one day Rantideva was about to drink porridge made of wheat in the morning. At that time a Brahmana came there who was tired and hungry as well. Rantideva gave half of the porridge to the Brahmana. He was giving this as an offering to the Lord remembering that everything is the Lord alone. The Brahmana ate it and left. At that time a shudra came and Rantideva gave him half of what was left. When the shudra left, a hunter came with his dogs asking food for him and the dogs. Rantideva gave the rest of the food to them.

Explanation

We find here as to how Rantideva was living in the world despite all
the sorrows and sufferings remembering the ultimate reality of Lord and
doing all actions as an offering to the Lord.

As we have been learning in all the stories, there are only two
entities here - one is the ultimate reality of Lord which alone is real and the other is the illusory world which seems to exist but is ultimately unreal.

The moment we come to the above two entities, we will always be
contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord as realization of one's nature of Lord alone can lead us to eternal bliss - which is the ultimate goal of life that we have been seeking each and every moment of our life. The more and more we seek the temporary objects of the world, we will only be lead to sorrow. A wise person after knowing the futility of sensual pleasures will always be contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord. Constant contemplation of the Lord doesn't mean that such a person will get away from the world, go to a forest and meditate. He will be behaving and living in the world like a normal worldly person. But he will always be remembering the ultimate reality of Lord and thereby will offer all actions as an offering to the Lord. This sense of offering everything to the Lord and knowledge that everything is an illusion in the Lord will make him totally detached to things in the world.

We aren't bothered or worried about what is happening to people in
other countries and other places. This is because we are automatically
detached to such people who aren't "my people". This sense of detachment is there in a spiritual person towards all other things in the world except the ultimate reality of Lord. The detachment is so complete that even if such a person is stabbed or kicked, he will be ever happy and unaffected. JThis doesn't mean that spiritual people should bear all violence like Gandhiji - Vedanta never says a person to do so. We have to resist those who are trying to attack us - but this action of resisting also should be done as an offering to the Lord remembering that the Lord alone exists here, one without a second. But we find in unique cases realized saints who are totally detached that nothing around them matters for them. When Ramana Maharshi was once asked as to what he would do if a smoking person comes to the ashram - he replied that "he will go away from the ashram". Such was the state of renunciation and detachment in Maharshi's mind. It is such a sense of complete detachment that we find in Rantideva in this story of Bhagavatham. Rantideva considered everything as the ultimate reality of Lord alone and hence he was totally detached to things. He was so detached to his own body that he didn't feel the need of sustaining the body when food/water was required for others.

We will hear as to why Rantideva was behaving in such a way right from
his mouth in the next day.

Rantideva thought of quenching his thirst with water left in the
porridge. At that time a chandaala came asking for water. To the chandaala, Rantideva uttered these words of compassion thus:

I don't seek anything other than realization of the ultimate reality of
Lord. I don't seek Yoga composed of the asta aishwaryas. I don't also
wish to have moksha in the form of getting rid of the cycle of birth and death. I will take the sorrows of all jeevas by being the inner Self in them. Due to this let all the people of the world live without sorrow.

Explanation

Though Rantideva was fully detached to things of the world and was ever
contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord, he still had a small
delusion in him which is shown in this part of Srimad Bhagavatham.

The reality is that there is nothing here but the Lord alone exists.
The duality that we see is only an illusion of names and forms in the
reality of Lord. If the Lord alone exists, there are no different beings. If there are no different beings, then there is neither sorrow nor happiness for those beings. The sorrow of beings is caused due to
ignorance. If a seeker sees the sorrow of other beings, it is due to his own ignorance that he fails to apprehend the blissful Lord pervading in and out of those beings who seem to be in sorrow. It is as if the dreamer is dreaming and seeing people suffering in the world. Since the dream thinks the dream world to be real, he wants to put an end to the suffering in the world. This is delusion caused due to Maya and ignorance of the truth that everything is Lord alone. Though we may learn and understand that everything is the Lord alone, this is only intellectual knowledge. Intellectual knowledge alone is not sufficient - this has to be converted into intuitive experience which alone will fully remove delusion of considering the world to be real. Though Rantideva knew that there is only the Lord alone here, he hadn't experienced this - thus when he saw people suffering in the world, he thought of helping them by removing those suffering.

If the various Mahatmas and avataras like Jesus Christ, Sri Krishna,
Buddha etc. couldn't put an end to suffering, how can an ignorant person achieve the same? It is only delusion that causes a person to desire for putting an end to desires of people who don't really exist but are only illusions in the reality of Lord. This is as good as trying to do fishing in the water seen in the desert - the water itself is an illusion, then what good can fishing do in the illusory water? Similarly the world is only an illusion in the non-dual Lord. Since it is only an illusion, we can never put an end to the illusory sufferings of people (people themselves being illusion in the reality of Lord). The only way out of this delusion is to clearly understand and experience that the Lord alone exists. The more and more we try to social service for the world, we will only be entangled in considering the world to be real. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't do social service - but just that social service also should be done remembering that society itself is only an illusion. In such a case, the seeker will be unaffected by the activities and state of society unlike Rantideva here who was attached to the outcome of the suffering of the people in the world.

This delusion is natural in a person and we find current day Mahatmas
proclaiming social service as essential in the spiritual path. So much
that it is considered as one of the main spiritual qualities in a person by Ramakrishna Mission, Art of Living etc. Such people (even if they are followers of Ramakrishna or Sri Sri Ravishankar or even Vishnu) will be lead into sorrow alone as they are forgetting the reality that there is no world here and thereby trying to purify the non-existent world. These are not my personal words but the various stories of Srimad Bhagavatham clearly point this out that if we try to purify the non-existent world, we will only end up in sorrow unless we are bold like Sankara and try to serve the world knowing that the world doesn't really exist.

We will see as to how Rantideva came to realize the futility of social
service in the next day.