Bob: What about just giving assistance, like you give...?
Prabhupāda: That is also goodness.
Bob: To a beggar who has nothing you give alms.
Prabhupāda: Um hmm. So that is goodness. But still... Just like in your Bowery Street, they give some charity, and immediately he purchases one bottle of wine and drinks and lie down flat. (laughter) So that is charity... That is not goodness, that is ignorance.
Bob: That charity is ignorance.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are three kinds of charities: goodness, passion, and ignorance. Goodness means charity where charity must be given. Just like this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So if anyone gives charity to this movement, that is goodness. Because it is spreading God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is goodness. And if one gives charity for some return, that is passion. And if somebody gives in charity, he does not know what he's going to do, just like the Bowery man, that is ignorance. So our Vedic principle is, Kṛṣṇa says, that yat karoṣi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam. That "Give Me." There is no question of knowing what is going to happen. If Kṛṣṇa takes, that is the perfection of charity. Or anyone who is representative of Kṛṣṇa, he takes, that is perfection.
Bob: And what kind of charity is it when you give to, food to somebody who is hungry?
Prabhupāda: Well, that is also depends on goodness and passion and ignorance. That example I was giving, that a doctor has forbidden that "This patient should not take any solid food." But if you make charity, "Oh, he..." And he's asking "Give me some solid..." Sometime patient asks. And if you give him solid food, then you are not doing good to him. That is ignorance.