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Eating only food offered to Krishna is the perfection of vegetarianism. In itself, being a vegetarian is not enough; after all, even pigeons and monkeys are vegetarians. But when we go beyond vegetarianism to a diet of pras\u0101dam, our eating becomes helpful in achieving the goal of human life-reawakening the soul\u2019s original relationship with God. In the Bhagavad-g\u012bt\u0101 Lord Krishna says that unless one eats only food that has been offered to Him in sacrifice, one will suffer the reactions of karm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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As you walk down the supermarket aisles selecting the foods you will offer to Krishna, you need to know what is offerable and what is not. In the Bhagavad-g\u012bt\u0101, Lord Krishna states, \u201cIf one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water, I will accept it.\u201d From this verse it is understood that we can offer Krishna foods prepared from milk products, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and grains. Meat, fish, and eggs are not offerable. And a few vegetarian items are also forbidden\u2014garlic and onions, for example, which are in the mode of darkness. (Hing, or asafetida, is a tasty substitute for them in cooking and is available at most Indian groceries or from Temple Services.) Nor can you offer to Kr\u1e63\u1e47a coffee or tea that contain caffeine. If you like these beverages, purchase caffeine\u2014free coffee and herbal teas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In preparing food, cleanliness is the most important principle. Nothing impure should be offered to God; so keep your kitchen very clean. Always wash your hands thoroughly before entering the kitchen. While preparing food, do not taste it, for you are cooking the meal not for yourself but for the pleasure of Krishna. Arrange portions of the food on dinnerware kept especially for this purpose; no one but the Lord should eat from these dishes. The easiest way to offer food is simply to pray, \u201cMy dear Lord Krishna, please accept this food,\u201d and to chant each of the following prayers three times while ringing a bell (see the Sanskrit Pronunciation Guide):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Prayer to \u015ar\u012bla Prabhup\u0101da:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
nama o\u1e41 Vishnu-p\u0101d\u0101ya Krishna-pre\u1e63\u1e6dh\u0101ya bh\u016b-tale
\u015br\u012bmate bhaktived\u0101nta-sv\u0101min iti n\u0101mine
namas te s\u0101rasvate deve gaura-v\u0101\u1e47\u012b-prac\u0101ri\u1e47e
nirvi\u015be\u1e63a-\u015b\u016bnyav\u0101di-p\u0101\u015bc\u0101tya-de\u015ba-t\u0101ri\u1e47e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhup\u0101da, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet. Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Bhaktisiddh\u0101nta Sarasvat\u012b Gosv\u0101m\u012b. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Prayer to Lord Caitanya:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
namo mah\u0101-vad\u0101ny\u0101ya Krishna-prema-prad\u0101ya te
k\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47\u0101ya Krishna-caitanya-n\u0101mne gaura-tvi\u1e63e nama\u1e25
[Cc. Madhya 19.53]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cO most munificent incarnation! You are Krishna Himself appearing as \u015ar\u012b Krishna Caitanya Mah\u0101prabhu. You have assumed the golden color of \u015ar\u012bmat\u012b R\u0101dh\u0101r\u0101\u1e47\u012b, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krishna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Prayer to Lord Krishna:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
namo brahma\u1e47ya-dev\u0101ya go-br\u0101hma\u1e47a-hit\u0101ya ca
jagad-dhit\u0101ya k\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47\u0101ya govind\u0101ya namo nama\u1e25<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Krishna, who is the worshipable Deity for all br\u0101hma\u1e47as, the well-wisher of the cows and the br\u0101hma\u1e47as, and the benefactor of the whole world. I offer my repeated obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, known as Krishna and Govinda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Remember that the real purpose of preparing and offering food to the Lord is to show your devotion and gratitude to Him. Krishna accepts your devotion, not the physical offering itself. God is complete in Himself\u2014He doesn\u2019t need anything\u2014but out of His immense kindness He allows us to offer food to Him so that we can develop our love for Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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After offering the food to the Lord, wait at least five minutes for Him to partake of the preparations. Then you should transfer the food from the special dinnerware and wash the dishes and utensils you used for the offering. Now you and any guests may eat the pras\u0101dam. While you eat, try to appreciate the spiritual value of the food. Remember that because Krishna has accepted it, it is nondifferent from Him, and therefore by eating it you will become purified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Everything you offer on your altar becomes pras\u0101dam, the mercy of the Lord. Flowers, incense, the water, the food\u2014everything you offer for the Lord\u2019s pleasure becomes spiritualized. The Lord enters into the offerings, and thus the remnants are nondifferent from Him. So you should not only deeply respect the things you\u2019ve offered, but you should distribute them to others as well. Distribution of pras\u0101dam is an essential part of Deity worship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eating pras\u0101dam is a fundamental practice of bhakti-yoga. In other forms of yoga one must artificially repress the senses, but the bhakti-yog\u012b can engage his or her senses in a variety of pleasing spiritual activities, such as tasting delicious food offered to Lord Krishna. In this way the senses gradually become spiritualized and bring the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-material"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5110,"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5108\/revisions\/5110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpuri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}