Agathiyar has asked us to feed in all possible ways. You can feed a visitor to your home. You can feed the birds that perch on the branches in your garden. You can feed the labourers who come by your house clearing the drains or sweeping the roads. You can feed the garbage collectors. You can buy someone food while you are at an eatery. You can feed those begging on the streets. You can feed the homeless. You can feed the orphans and old folks in the care of homes. It is limitless. If you have the will then you shall have the means too.
Agathiyar too has fed others we learn from a piece from https://blog.good-will.ch/WordPress/2010/10/23/rishi-agastya-a-little-miracle-and-some-stories/. The author writes,
Last week I came across a transcription of a seminar given by Sri Kumar in the Nilagiri Hills in 1996 about Agastya, Master Jupiter. ..... He is often traveling with his disciples and loves to cook and to serve. Through serving food he likes to spread himself into the people and thus to adjust any imbalances in the mental, emotional, and physical bodies.
In his spiritual activities he never treads any trodden paths, but gives new trends and directions, being full of freshness. His live is always accompanied by will, spreading be-ness and presence. He is very humorous and his teachings are very powerful, but nevertheless humorous, thus uplifting the people.
In the scriptures there is the story that once a group of disciples in the Himalaya had the questions who is the one fasting most, and Maitreya told them, “It is Agastya, he never eats.” They wanted to see Agastya and went to him. Agastya said: "Observe me for three days.”
They were very surprised to see him cooking, eating and serving. He was not missing any meal, and every meal was from our standpoint very excessive in its quantity.
After three days the group asked: "We have not understood your way of fasting.” He answered: "Insofar as you don’t feel that you are eating, it is fasting.”
He does not think he is eating. He lives in tune with the universal consciousness and in such a tune-up the food is given to all the elementals around him with himself as the channel.
And so he has set us on his footsteps, to feed the poor and hungry. Ram Dass (Love Serve Remember Foundation) was asked by his guru to feed too. "When I asked my guru to raise my kundalini, he said, "feed people." My guru Supramania Swami's last wish before his samadhi was to feed 1,000 people in Thiruvannamalai. In the revelation of the origin of the very first temple for Agathiyar in this Kali Yuga by Agathiyar to Dr. V.M.Jayapalan of Bangalore, Agathiyar who comes as a leper to cure the Asuric King Kuberan propagates the act of feeding the people. Ramalinga Adigal built the Satya Dharma Salai at Vadalur back then in 1867 where food was cooked and served to the hungry, which is being done till the present day.
So what is the significance of feeding or Annadanam then? Sri Maha Periyava of Kanchi narrates the benefits of Annadanam at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9vnMtrPKkYVZDNmMzhiNWItMzJlYS00ZDMzLTgxYzItZjZlYzMyYWNjMTA2/edit
Similarly, an article at http://www.indusladies.com/forums/queries-on-religion-and-spirituality/129675-importance-of-annadhanam.html extolls the merits of feeding the people.
"Give food, Give food. Give food", this is what Lord Krishna advises Yudhishthira in the Bhavishya Purana in his discourse on 'daanam' or the discipline of sharing.
"Yudhishthira asks Lord Krishna to enlighten him about the essence of Bhishma Pitamaha's erudite discourse on dharma in the 'santi parva' of the Mahabharata.
Lord Krishna says: "The World, both animate and inanimate, is sustained by food. The giver of food is the giver of life and indeed of everything else. Therefore, one who is desirous of well-being in this world and beyond should make special endeavors to give food. Also, food should be offered with venerable hospitality to the old, the child, and the tired traveler".
In http://www.hindu-blog.com/2011/07/annadanam-importance-of-food-donation.html, it is mentioned as follows,
"Annadanam is performed for the redemption of sins, to attain piety, to get speedy recovery from illness and also to attain moksha. There is a Hindu belief that sins committed in previous birth follow a person in successive births – Annadanam is performed to put an end to this."
Besides seeking redemption from sins that we had done, Agathiyar tells us that by feeding another his karma is relieved too. Hence we help each other in the process of feeding another.
