In the past couple of weeks I saw several comments here suggesting that preaching is alien to Hinduism, which I think is incorrect.

Preaching is the duty of any sadhu, they meet ordinary people and dispense spiritual knowledge. Some get invited to speak but if sadhu turns up uninvited and says something spiritually elevating that's even better.

Usually sadhus interact with ordinary people when they collect food so it looks like they are begging but, in fact, they do not depend on anyone but God and the main benefit from meeting them is hearing their message, that's what makes a real difference in one's life.

As people become more and more materialistic sadhu's message might become more and more difficult to digest and so it's natural for overly attached householders to give food to a sadhu so that he'd shut up and eat instead. They think that sadhus exist to increase their material prosperity and so completely misuse their opportunities.

Some people believe that they are spiritual enough, they observe festivals and go to the temple, so they turn away random sadhus in the same way one turns away direct salesmen: "If I want something I'll go to the supermarket."

Spiritual truth, however, is not a commodity to be bought at one's own pleasure, this is another grossly materialistic misunderstanding. You don't have to agree with what a sadhu has to say but if God brought him to your doorstep and made him speak you'd better listen - God might not give you such an opportunity again.

Look at it from varnasrama perspective - out of four stages of life three are meant for practicing renunciation (and thus spending time in sadhus company). In Kali yuga, however, sannyasa is prohibited and relatively few householders are preparing themselves for eventual renunciation, it is not a thing anymore.

Time for practicing brahmacharya is also spent not on learning sense control but on preparing for big, promising careers. This makes modern householders think that their success at "making it", their situation, is a golden standard, and if it doesn't include regularly interacting with sadhus then preaching naturally feels alien. It wasn't like that when three quarters of the population were practicing renunciation of some sorts.

This kind of conflict has also been going on forever, not just in Kali yuga. In Srimad Bhagavatam there's a story about how Prajapati Daksha once cursed Narada Muni for preaching to his sons and converting them to renunciates, batch and after batch, eleven thousand in total. At one point Daksha felt it was hopeless and decided to produce only daughters instead. When cursing Narada, Daksha also argued, in effect, that preaching is not a part of Hinduism, and as a prajapati he was the biggest authority on dharma.

My point is - preaching has been going on forever, it will go on forever, there will always be some conflict around it, there will be good arguments for both sides, and it's just a part of life. Left on our own, without sadhus reaching out to us and delivering us from our ignorance, we stand no chance in this day and age.