How to offer food to Krishna?
March 14, 2013 by Madhudvisa dasa
Filed under Introduction
There is a common misunderstanding that devotees of Krishna are vegetarians. Actually this is not true. Even if one becomes a vegetarian eating vegetarian food is still sinful and will still cause karmic reactions and will still bind the person eating it to take birth in the material world over and over and over again and suffer perpetually. So simply becoming a vegetarian is not very helpful in spiritual life.
in the Bhagavad-gita 3.13 Lord Krishna says:
The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.
So we can see unless the food is first ‘offed for sacrifice’ the person who eats that food is only eating sin. And the result of eating sin is that one becomes sinful. Krishna consciousness is only possible for those who are not sinful so Krishna consciousness is not possible for one who eats sin. Therefore even if one is a strict vegetarian it will be completely impossible for him to become Krishna conscious unless he restricts his eating to only food that has been offered to in sacrifice (yajna).
This is a very common reason why aspiring devotees of Lord Krishna fail to become Krishna conscious. They fail because they continue to eat food that is not offered to Krishna. Even though they may become strict vegetarians this does not help them very much, because vegetarian food which is not cooked by a devotee and offered to Krishna with love and devotion is simply sin. So when they eat this vegetarian food that is not prasadam they become sinful. And a sinful person can never become a devotee. Krishna confirms this in Bhagavad-gita 7.28:
Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination.
Srila Prabhupada states in his purport to this verse: “Those eligible for elevation to the transcendental position are mentioned in this verse. For those who are sinful, atheistic, foolish and deceitful, it is very difficult to transcend the duality of desire and hate. Only those who have passed their lives in practicing the regulative principles of religion, who have acted piously and who have conquered sinful reactions can accept devotional service and gradually rise to the pure knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then, gradually, they can meditate in trance on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the process of being situated on the spiritual platform. This elevation is possible in Krishna consciousness in the association of pure devotees who can deliver one from delusion.”
So we should understand it very clearly that sinful people can not become Krishna conscious and if one eats food, even if it is vegetarian food, that is not Krishna prasadam, meaning not cooked by a devotee of Krishna and offered to Krishna with love and devotion, he is eating only sin and because of eating sin he will become sinful. And because he is sinful he will not be able to become Krishna conscious.
It is very important to understand this simple scientific fact. If we eat anything which is not Krishna prasadam we are eating only sin and we will become sinful because of this. And we have to know it clearly that for a sinful person it is not possible to become Krishna conscious. So a devotee of Krishna can NEVER eat anything that is not Krishna prasadam.
And another common mistake is to try to offer unofferable things to Krishna and then to try and fool ourselves that these things have now become Krishna prasadam because we offered them to Krishna… Krishna only accepts foods in the mode of goodness. That means foods from the four groups of grains, milk products, vegetables and fruits. And He does not accept things in the mode of passion including garlic and onions. And it is a great offense to offer to Krishna foods that have been cooked by non-devotees. So once something is cooked by a non-devotee it can not be offered to Krishna, if you offer it to Krishna that is offensive and will not be good for you and of course it will not be accepted by Krishna and will not become prasadam…
We have to understand exactly what it is that Krishna accepts when we offer Him some food. It is not that Krishna is hungry and needs us to offer Him some food otherwise he will starve… No. Krishna is complete and full in Himself, He has plenty of food, and anyhow the food that we can offer Him is already His. It is not that we have anything to offer to Krishna, whatever we have already belongs to Krishna. So Krishna is not hungry and He does not need to be fed by us. But Krishna has given us a little independence. He has given us a little free will. We can choose to cook some food for our own pleasure or we can choose to cook some food for Krishna’s pleasure. That is our free will. So if we choose to cook for our own pleasure, to suit our own taste, then we are in maya and whatever we cook, even if it is vegetarian and even if we go through the motions of offering it to Krishna will not be accepted by Krishna and will not become prasadam and will be only sin and we will become sinful by eating it. Why? Because we did not cook it for Krishna. We cooked it for ourselves.
This is a very basic and a very fundamental principle of Krishna consciousness. And it is a point that 99% or more of today’s ‘devotees’ do not understand or follow. A devotee does not do anything for himself. He does everything for Krishna. So when a devotee goes to the market to purchase things he is not purchasing things because he thinks, “that looks nice, I will enjoy eating that…” That thought and consciousness of being the enjoyer is maya, illusion, sinful. We are not the enjoyer, Krishna is the enjoyer, we are meant to be enjoyed by Krishna. We are meant to be servants of Krishna. So when a devotee goes to the market and sees something very nice he is thinking of how he can prepare this nice thing in a very good way and offer it to Krishna and he is thinking of how Krishna will enjoy it.
A devotee does not consider his personal likes and dislikes. He has no concern for that at all. A devotee is only concerned with what Krishna likes and he is only concerned in preparing the food in the way that Krishna likes it. And he does not care. He may not like it himself personally but his pleasure is in seeing Krishna happy. So he purchases the food that Krishna likes and prepares it in the way that Krishna likes it and he offers it to Krishna with love and devotion and Krishna accepts this love and devotion with which the devotee prepares and offers the food to Him. Krishna does not need the actual food, but He does taste it because Krishna is attracted by the love and devotion His devotee has put into the food while preparing and offering it to Krishna. So Krishna accepts the love and devotion of the devotee who has prepared this offering for Him. That is what Krishna accepts. So if there is no love and devotion Krishna is not interested, He has no need for the food, and He is not interested in something that some person has prepared to satisfy his own personal sense of taste.
Therefore it is a very great offense to think of enjoying the food before it is offered to Krishna. Because we are preparing the food for Krishna therefore Krishna should be the first person to taste and enjoy it. We can not even think of enjoying the food in our minds or that will spoil the offering. That is the reason that it is forbidden to taste any food before it is offered to Krishna. If anyone tastes the food then the offering is spoiled and it is can not be offered to Krishna.
It is amazing that so many devotees have forgotten or never understood these essential basic fundamental principles of cooking for Krishna. Without very sincerely following these basic principles no one can become Krishna conscious. It is impossible to eat sin without becoming sinful and it is impossible to become Krishna conscious if we are sinful.
So if anyone wants to become a devotee of Krishna he must make this very serious vow that he will only eat Krishna prasadam, foods cooked by devotees and offered with love and devotion to Krishna. We can not eat anything that is not real Krishna prasadam and expect that we will be able to become devotees of Krishna.
Of course we have to learn how to cook for Krishna. The standards for cooking for Krishna are quite high. One has to be exceptionally clean. One has to have taken a bath before he cooks for Krishna and has to be wearing clean clothes. And the kitchen has to be very clean. There is an English saying: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” and that is very true. We can not offer something to Krishna that was prepared in a dirty kitchen. And there are some important principles and one of these is we have to keep separate “Krishna’s pots” and our own personal eating plates and spoons and cups, etc. We can not use anything in preparing food for Krishna except Krishna’s things. So that means we can not use Krishna’s cooking things for ourselves. So if we are using a pot to cook for Krishna in we can not eat out of that pot ourselves for example. If we are using a spoon for mixing Krishna’s food in the cooking pot we can not later use that same spoon to eat from ourselves. We have to keep Krishna’s things and our eating things separate.
We have to be thinking of Krishna while we cook. It is not that we can be thinking of some material subject matter and at the same time be cooking for Krishna. A very good way to keep our minds on Krishna is to listen to Srila Prabhupada giving a class while we are cooking for Krishna. While we are cooking our hands are busy but our ears are free. So while we are cooking for Krishna is the perfect opportunity to hear from Srila Prabhupada and this will keep our mind on Krishna and stop it from wandering onto material subject matters.
When we have finished cooking for Krishna we have to arrange the food nicely on a plate that we will offer to Krishna. And that plate has to be Krishna’s plate and it can not be used for any other purpose except for offering food to Krishna. And if we have made some drink we can put that in a glass or we can offer a glass of water with Krishna’s meal.
Now a very important understanding for the actual offering is that really we are not offering anything to Krishna directly. We are actually cooking for Srila Prabhupada and we will offer the food to Srila Prabhupada. Because Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krishna and it is Prabhupada who has come here to the material world to save us and it is Prabhupada who is accepting our service on behalf of Krishna. That is what the spiritual master does. He accepts the service of the disciples on behalf of Krishna. So we cook for Srila Prabhupada and offer to Srila Prabhupada and then Prabhupada will take our offering and offer it to his spiritual master and in this way the offering will go to Krishna through the disciplic succession.
So we will place the plate with the food and the glass of water in front of a photo of Srila Prabhupada and offer it to him.
There are mantras to chant while offering ‘bhoga’ to Krishna. But the mantras are useless if the offering has not been cooked by a devotee with love and devotion. This love and devotion and actually cooking the offering for Krishna, not for ourselves, is the real essential element of the offering. If we have not put any love and devotion to Krishna into the offering then there is nothing for Krishna to accept and He will not accept because there is nothing for Him to accept…
You can offer to Krishna by chanting Srila Prabhupada’s two pranam mantras then the Panca-tattva Maha Mantra, then the Hare Krishna maha mantra all three times each. It is essential to always chant Srila Prabhupada’s pranam mantras first because it is only through the mercy of Srila Prabhupada that we have any access to Krishna, then it is also essential to always chant the Panca-Tattva maha mantra before chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra because it is only by the mercy of Lord Caitanya that we have any access to Krishna. There are also two other mantras that we chant when offering prasadam. So it is five mantras in total and we chant each mantra three times. It only takes a few minutes so we should take the time to chant these mantras.
Prasadam Offering Mantras
Srila Prabhupada’s Pranam Mantras:
nama om visnu-padaya krsna presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svami iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
Lord Caitanya’s Pranam Mantra:
namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te
krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvise namah
Krishna’s Pranam Mantra:
namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca
jagad-dhitaya krsnaya govindaya namo namah
Panca-Tattva Maha Mantra:
sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu nityananda
sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda
Hare Krishna Maha Mantra:
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
So they are the five mantras and we should chant them all three times each. Then if one is brahman initiated he chants the first gayatri mantra ten times on his brahmin thread.
The process in the temple or at home with your home alter is that after the Lord is offered food we then offer aroti and kirtan. So after offering there should be aroti and kirtan, then the devotees can honor the Krishna prasadam.
We do not say ‘eat’ Krishna prasadam. Krishna and His prasadam are not different. So we respect or honor Krishna prasadam.
Before honoring the prasadam there is a very short prayer that devotees chant from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Gitavali:
1) sarira abidya-jal, jodendriya tahe kal,
jibe phele bisaya-sagore
ta’ra madhye jihva ati, lobhamoy sudurmati
ta’ke jeta kathina somsare
2) krsna baro doyamoy, karibare jihva jay,
swa-prasad-anna dilo bhai
sei annamrta khao, radha-krsna-guna gao,
preme dako caitanya-nitai
“O brothers! This material body is a place of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths to death. The senses throw the soul into this ocean of material sense enjoyment and, of all the senses, the tongue is most voracious and uncontrollable; it is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world. O brothers! Lord Krsna is very kind to us and has given us such nice prasada, just to control the tongue. Now let us take this prasada to our full satisfaction and glorify Their Lordships, Sri Sri Radha and Krsna and, in love, call for the help of Lord Caitanya and Prabhu Nityananda.”
It is very good if we can chant this prayer, both the Bengali and English, before honoring Krishna Prasadam. It only takes a couple of minutes and it helps us to remember how merciful Krishna is to us that He has given us this Krishna Prasadam that enables us to control our tongues.
The tongue is the most difficult to control of all the senses. The tongue has two functions: tasting and vibrating. So we can conquer the tongue if we only let it taste Krishna prasadam and only let it vibrate Krishna-katha, talks about Krishna. We should never let the tongue taste anything except Krishna prasadam and never let it vibrate anything except Krishna katha. If we undergo this simple austerity then advancement in Krishna consciousness will be very simple and very rapid for us.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
When one is out on the road constantly, it is probably better to not eat at all, but that’s not practical.
You just have to make an arrangement to eat prasadam, otherwise you will be eating sin, you will become sinful and you will not be able to become Krishna conscious and your life will be spoiled.
You can cook on the road. That is what I do. I am on the road all the time but I am cooking every day for Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and that way I only eat Krishna prasadam. So if I can cook for Krishna on the road you can also cook for Krishna on the road.
If by chance you can not cook you can purchase some fruit, yogurt, milk, etc. And you can offer Krishna the fruit and yoghurt or whatever and in that way take Prasadam.
But we can never eat anything cooked by a non-devotee otherwise we will become non-devotees ourselves. This is a very powerful thing. I have the practical personal experience myself. You just think “I can eat this, it will be OK”. But it is never OK. We always get the sin. Of course sometimes you may have to eat something but that will not save us from eating the sin and will not save us from the reaction. If we eat the sin we will become sinful…
You have to make an arrangement. Like Srila Prabhupada, when he came to the US he was not sure if he would be able to get anything that he could offer to Krishna, so he came with some very big bags of grains, so if he was not able to find anything to offer to Krishna he was prepared to just soo ak those grains and eat them. Of course he was able to get vegetables and rice and dhal and cook himself in the US. But he did not eat anything cooked by anyone else. Even on the boat he was cooking for Krishna himself and at the Aggrawals house in Buttler he was cooking for Krishna and for the family there. So the point is that Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krishna and he never deviated on this principle of only taking Krishna prasadam so we can not expect to become devotees if we do not surrender to this basic principle and only accept foodstuffs that have been cooked by devotees and offered to Krishna with love.
Otherwise we will remain nondevotees. We can not become a devotee if we continue to eat food that is not prasadam…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krishna madhudvisa ji….
one of the most important article, many people dont know the proper procedure of offering even if they are cooking for krishna with love and i am one of them.
i want to ask if i am cooking for krishna so that the prasadam would be sufficient for, say 4-5 member, after offering to krishna in krishna’s plate/bowl/glass and then mix it with the utensil on which I have cooked, will it convert the whole food items that i prepared in to prasadam?
i am vey poor at cooking and i never used to like cooking but recently started cooking for krishna without onion and garlic, so that krishna’s prasadam shall have some impact on my family as they are not krishna conscious nor m i. but i am interested.
Hare Krishna Sonika
Yes. It is an important point. When you offer the plate to Krishna on the alter Krishna actually tastes all the food that is still in the cooking pots also. It is sometimes done as you suggest, taking the prasadam from the plate that was offered to Krishna on the alter and mixing that with the prasadam in the pots, that is a nice system, but even if you do not do this Krishna has still tasted the prasadam in the pots and the whole batch of cooking becomes prasadam, not just the portion on the plate that you offered on the alter.
It is very good to hear that you are cooking for Krishna and you will of course become a better cook and Krishna will give you the intelligence how to serve Him nicely.
It does not matter if we think we are good or bad at something, if we are doing it for Krishna He will help us and it will come out very nicely.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
I am the only krishna devotee in my family,and everyday is a challenge for me as they do not like the changes they see in me as i am becoming very close with Krishna.My cousins are in the krishna community as well,but their parents accepted it in a positive manner compare to my parents.I would love to show my love to krishna by offering him the food and eat his prasadams,but how would i make my family members understand that i am doing the right thing without them thinking i am going insane.
this is really a very heavy mail to digest….. what all is written is true … atleast in my case. I just want to enquire whether sweets brought from market should not be offered? and u told that we should cook for krishna…. but how can we know what should be cooked daily…..as normally we cook as per our requirement … offer it to krishna….and then accept it as prasadam….
Hare Krishna Monika
Yes. The quantity you cook has to be the quantity of Krishna prasadam you can distribute obviously. So you have to just use your common sense in this regard.
As far as offering purchased sweets to Krishna it is not a very good practice particularly these days as you can not guarantee anything about how the sweets were prepared or the consciousness of the people who cooked them.
It is far better to cook sweets yourself and offer them to Krishna. It is not very difficult and if you really cook them for Srila Prabhupada and Krishna they will accept them and you will get real Prasadam sweets…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsna prabhuji ,
I wanted to know the shloka in Gita wherein lord shree Krishna
Tells us to follow strick vegetarian diet . Actually when i ask my nonvegeterian friends
To refrain from flesh eating , they ask me as to where is it written !!
I fail to give them an answer for this !
Please help !
Hari bol !
|| Hare Krsna ||
Hare Krishna Rahul
It is pointless to preach on the point of vegetarianism. Even if your friends become vegetarians vegetarianism is not the cause of Krishna consciousness or spiritual life. On the other hand, if one becomes a devotee of Krishna then he automatically becomes a vegetarian because he only wants to eat Krishna prasadam and Krishna only accepts offerings in the mode of goodness [fruits, vegetables, grains, milk products].
People who are eating meat do not care about what Krishna wants them to do or what Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita. The way to preach to such people is not by philosophy or preaching them to become vegetarians. It is done by feeding them with Krishna prasadam, getting them to chant Hare Krishna, getting them to hear the pure devotees chanting Hare Krishna, and getting them to read Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Then when they become purified by hearing from Prabhupada, by hearing and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and by Krishna prasadam then they will automatically only accept prasadam. Devotees are not vegetarians. Devotees only accept Krishna prasadam.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Haribol from the altar it is called mahaprasadam, and dont mix it with theprasadam in pots! Sometimes people trow away the leftovers and in that way they also trow away the maha prasadam a big aparadha. Your servant in this.
Hare Krishna Bhakta Pieter
You do not know these things. There is no difference between the prasadam on the plates on the alter and the prasadam that Krishna also tastes in the cooking pots. There is no difference in throwing away maha prasadam and maha prasadam that is in the cooking pots. Throwing away prasadam should be avoided in all cases. If it is from the pots or from the plates on the alter. Still it can not be disrespected. Of course the devotees have a sentiment for getting the prasadam that comes off the plates on the alter but really there is absolutely no difference between that prasadam and the prasadam in the cooking pots the Krishna also tastes. So it can be mixed or it can be kept separate and the prasadam from the alter can be distributed as ‘maha prasadam’.
You are trying to make differentiations in prasadam. It is not possible. It is either prasadam or not prasadam. If it is prasadam it is transcendental and non-different from Krishna, if it comes from the cooking pots or if it comes from the plates on the alter Krishna accepted it all and it is all prasadam…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
PAMHA, GLORY TO SRI SRI GURUDEV AND TO SRILA PRABUPADA.
Please , can you clarify , when it states devotees of the Lord , does this imply only initiated devotees , ore aspiring devotees or followers of non initiated devotees.
If an initiated devotee , his wife follow the regulative principles but isnt initiated herself , can she cooked or prepared food to be offered for the lordship. please clarify
Hare Krishna Prabhu
It does not matter if one is initiated or not. Krishna doesn’t really care about that. If your wife likes to cook for Krishna and understands she is cooking for Krishna and you will offer the bhoga to Krishna then she can cook for Krishna even though she is not formally initiated.
For a wife anyhow her husband is her natural guru. So if the husband is initiated then really his wife is serving him and he is the natural guru for his wife.
So Prabhu certainly your wife can cook for Krishna and you can offer the bhoga to Krishna and together you can honor the Krishna prasadam!
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Dandwat pranam, PAMHO, AGTSP
very nice post plz send the pdf versions of these post if possible so v can compile them as e-letters
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!
Please accept my humble obeisances
I have a question about foods being offered, If I open a half gallon of milk and offer some of it, like a cup, then put it away, can I take another cup later on and offer it again? How about other supplies like yogurt? May we take a small quantity from a larger quantity and offer a small bit at a time? You said that once some part of something is offered then it all becomes prasadam does this only apply to prepared dishes or single ingredient items also?
Please forgive me if I am not explaining well.
Thank you, Haribol
Hare Krishna Matthew
Yes. You can do that. If you have a gallon of milk and only want to offer a cup or so to Krishna at a time you can do that. Or you can offer the cup and consider all the milk offered. But you can not offer milk without boiling it first. And milk is always taken hot. So whatever you take out of the bottle and put in the pot to heat up you would consider offered and the rest of the bottle in the fridge is still not offered.
You can do the same thing with yogurt, vegetables, etc. You can take one or two carrots out of a bag and put them in a subji you are cooking for Krishna and the subji in the pot is offered to Krishna and the rest of the carrots are not…
You know what you are offering to Krishna and He also knows…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsihna,Madhudvisa dasa ji,
Thanks for such a nice article…
Do we also have to make our own (Western)bread, butter and cheese at home….?
You can not eat anything that is cooked by non-devotees so certainly you can not eat bread cooked by non-devotees. Western bread is not very good because it contains yeast. It is better to cook chapatis / rotis for Krishna. That is very fast and easy and very nice for Krishna. Butter is OK. That we can purchase. But of course if you can keep a few cows and milk them and churn the yoghurt into butter that would be best. But that is not possible for many of us now. As far as cheese, almost all of the cheese contains rennet as a hardening agent and that is generally made from calves stomachs. So cheese with chopped up baby cows in it is absolutely not fit for offering to Krishna. Better to just purchase milk, or milk cows if you can keep them, and you can make curd from the milk very easily just by boiling it and adding lemon juice of citric acid and then straining it. Then you get the kurds in the strainer and the whey in the pot underneath. You can press the curd lightly for a few hours and that makes a block of cheese that you can cut into squares and use as it is or deep fry it and put it in subjis and so many other things… So you can make you own chapatis and fresh cheese for offering to Krishna and buying butter and milk is the only practical option for most of us who can not keep cows…
Devotees are not karmis and can not live like karmis. If we live like karmis eating the food cooked by karmis like the store purchased bread then we will become karmis, we will not be able to become devotees…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna,Madhudvisa dasa ji
I have another question. They have cheeses which have FPC rennet in it…they basically add a cow gene into a bacteria and it hardens the cheese. I just recently came to know about this.(Lord Krishna guided me.. i guess). Also in non-organic milk they add Vitamin D3 which is made from skin of pigs/sheep. In America they put lot of non-veg stuff in veg stuff and most people are unaware about it.F.D.A is basically run by corporations like Monsanto(in India many farmers committed suicide partly because of this company).
In future it is said that due to genetic engineering, companies like Monsanto, might put an animal gene in vegetarian crops. Would a vegetarian crop ,like wheat, be considered vegetarian if it has animal gene in it? (just for future reference)
I agree with whatever you said above. I will be making butter and cheese from organic milk in the future. Being vegan is probably the safest way of making no offenses while preparing and serving food for Swami Prabhupada ji and Lord RadhaKrishna ji in America.
You probably know more than me…it is for people who may not be aware of what kind of stuff is there in their food.
Hare Krishna Tushar
Yes. In the Kali-yuga the demons are trying to destroy everything. This vitamin D3 in milk is only done in the US as far as I am aware and they have been doing it for a very long time, even when Srila Prabhupada was physically present. This question was brought to Srila Prabhupada and he said basically, what can we do, we have to offer milk to Krishna. So in the cities of the US where one has no other alternative then we have to offer this D3 milk to Krishna. But it is not the best. The best thing is that we should have Krishna farms and Krishna’s cows and milk them ourselves and that would solve the problem.
As far as the cheese it should be avoided. Most of it has rennet in it. There is no problem to avoid it. We can make curd, fresh cheese, from milk with no problems at all.
We want to offer Krishna natural things, and when they start making genetic modifications to plants they become unnatural. So we need to try to avoid offering all unnatural things to Krishna. So we need to avoid genetically modified anything. That is possible at the moment and we can only deal with the current time. The future we will deal with in the future…
As far as vegan food it would be horribly offensive to offer vegan food to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Krishna is so fond of the cows and a big reason for this is that the cows give milk and from milk so many delicious foodstuffs are prepared. Krishna’s whole activity is as a cowherd boy. And Krishna’s cows are milking cows. So His whole activity is looking after the cows and getting milk from the cows and stealing and eating the butter and milk and yoghurt from his mother and her friends… So Krishna is very, very, very fond of milk and milk products so we have to offer Krishna milk and milk products if we want to please him.
Also for us it is essential that we take milk and milk products because there is a miracle in milk. Milk contains ingredients that allow one to cultivate the finer tissues in the brain that make spiritual understanding possible. So without taking milk one can not develop these finer tissues in the brain and cannot become Krishna conscious. So milk is called liquid religion. Veganism is absolute nonsense. It is not a practical diet. They use vegetable oils that are very unhealthy and they use soy products that are very, very unhealthy and it is a completely unsatisfying and unnatural diet. And Prabhupada and Krishna are not vegans so if you want to please them you can not offer them vegan food….
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Dear Prabhuji!
I am still living with my family who are not devotees. since i am young, i cannot always cook and after reading the article i feel i have had offended Lord many times by offering Him what my mother had prepared. also i thank lord for covering my intelligence most of the time. but my problem is that i do not know how to get out of this situation of accepting sinful food, without creating much chaos at home. even my spiritual name is not known at home.
kindly help me
Hare Krishna Mataji
It is a very difficult situation. In the past, when ISKCON temples were being properly run according to the directions of Srila Prabhupada, the obvious answer would be to join the temple. But that is not practical now, it would not help you even if they would let you join. I think there is no harm in telling your family that you are a devotee of Krishna. How can they not know?
Anyhow the main thing is to surrender to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, to chant every day at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and to strictly follow the four regulative principles (no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication) and read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day. If you actually do all these things Krishna will give you inspiration and intelligence from within and you will be able to understand what is the correct thing for you to do. I can not say what that is.
But you do have to get out of the situation of accepting sinful food. It is a very essential aspect for our development in Krishna consciousness that we only accept Krishna prasadam and if there are no other devotees around to cook it and offer it to Krishna that means we have to cook and offer bhoga to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna ourselves, and that cooking for Srila Prabhupada and Krishna is also of course a wonderful service and that will also help us advance spiritual a great deal…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare krsna parbhu, this is may quiestion
What kind of body does the semigod have?
The vedas say that demigods does not have ordinary body as we have
Thancks so much.
Hare Krishna Manuel
The demigod’s bodies are material like ours. But they are much better than ours in their ability for sense enjoyment and in many other ways. Of course there are so many demigods, the number 33 million is sometimes mentioned, and they are all different and have different exceptional abilities depending on what sort of special ability they need to perform the service that Krishna has allocated to them.
The demigods are fabulous in comparison to us. And in many different ways, but still their bodies are material, made of the five material elements: earth, water, air, fire and ether. Of course the proportions can differ from us. For example we know that there are living entities in the sun planet, there is a sun god, he is a demigod, he is a person, he has a material body, but his body is mostly fire whereas our bodies are mostly water.
So in comparison to us the bodies of the demigods are certainly special, but they are still material bodies and the demigods, like us, take birth, get old, get sick and die. It is just that in comparison to us their lives are fabulously long and comparatively speaking they have much greater facilities for material enjoyment than we do. But you know also the demons are always fighting with the demigods. So they do not have undisturbed enjoyment, they do not have peace of mind.
They are still in the material world, they still have material desires. They are all devotees of Krishna, but not pure devotees, because they still have some material desire they have been promoted to the position of demigods instead of being able to go back home, back to Godhead…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
HARA KRISHNA PRVUJE
AT FIRST I GIVE YOU VERY VERY THANKS TO YOU FOR NICE ADVISE .PRAVUJE WHEN I AM COOKING I AM ALWAYS TELL GOD .{HEY KRISHNA YOU ARE IN MY HEART AS OUR SOLE SO WHEN I AM EAT SOMETHING YOU ARE ALSO EAT SO MY FOOD YOU TEST FIRST IN YOUR SENSE .AN GIVE ME ORDER TO EAT IT LIKE YOUR PRASAD) BECAUSE I NEVER OFFER FOOD AT EXTRA PLATE IN FRONT OF YOUR PHOTO. BUT BEFORE PREPARE FOOD I ALWAYS BATH AND KRITAN OF KRISHNA . IS MY FOOD IS NOT PRASSAD PRAVUJEE.PLEASE GIVE SOME ADVISE ME?
Hare Krishna Nirupama
Of course it is up to Krishna if He accepts your offerings or not so how can I say but it is not the right understanding to think that ‘O Krishna when I eat you eat…’ This is not the right mood. We should cook for Krishna, not cook for ourselves. And we have to offer to Krishna and take the remnants of Krishna’s food, that is Krishna Prasadam, Krishna’s mercy. So you should follow the proper system and after cooking you need to make up a nice plate on Krishna’s own plate and offer it to Him. And then once Krishna has enjoyed your offering you can take Krishna prasadam. It does not take very long and you will find it a very nice feeling, cooking for Krishna and offering the bhoga to Krishna…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krishna swamiji pranam
this afticle is enlightening much. thank you. hare krishna.
Natarajan
Hare Krishna Dear Prabhuj,
thanks a lot prbhuji for giving proper way of offering foods to Lord krishna.I have one boubt that ginger and garlics are passionate food which is not offered to krishna and also should not eaten by a devotee.But ginger and garlic are used for some meditional purpose.if a devotee takes such medicine whether he/she is eating sinful foods.Also ginger and garlic are vegiterian food.
Thanks
Purna chandra
Hare Krishna Purna Chandra
Ginger is OK for offering to Krishna. Garlic is not.
I think you can avoid garlic without any problem.
Medicine is of course not Krishna-prasadam. We don’t offer medicine to Krishna, it is to help maintain and heal our body that we will use in the service of Krishna. So if we are taking the medicine so we can get well so we can serve Krishna with our bodies then that can be service to Krishna. But I do not think there is any need to take any prohibited things like garlic which will cause one to get into the mode of passion, which will not be good for his Krishna consciousness. One could also say many medicines contain alcohol so can I drink alcohol if it is in the medicine. But alcohol is so very contaminating and will have a very bad effect on our consciousness so even if we take it in our medicine it will be bad for our Krishna consciousness.
Really, if one actually becomes Krishna conscious, and lives a simple life and takes simple Krishna prasadam and rises early, chanting Hare Krishna, and engages in serving Krishna 24 hours a day, he will very rarely need to take any medicine, and even if you do need some medicine I am sure you can find something that does not contain alcohol, garlic, etc…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hara Krishana Prabuji!
All glories to srila prabupada!
Prabu while I was serving as a bhakta in one of the rittvik temples in India which I have stopped going to upon your advice I noticed that they reheat Mahaprasadam what does prabupada say about reheating mahaprasada can it be done?
Prabu I am chanting 16 rounds joined a job in a BPO in tech support(in training for the week) parents critisise my chanting as I chant loudly but I go on without fear of being admitted to mental hospital.
Prabu I didn’t learn cooking so I am not able to offer food and get prasadam.
Prabu how do I listen(accesss) to leactures now that I am outside temple?
I want to learn Mridanga and Kartal how can I learn it?
Prabu I am put in night shift(Graveyard shift) so difficult to make time to read prabupada books. Have I done the wright thing joining BPO?
Need your advice.
regards
utsav
Hare Krishna Utsav
Yes. Mahaprasadam should not be reheated. Prasadam should not be reheated. That is the rule for sure. That is what Srila Prabhupada says. The reason of course is as devotees we should only ever do anything for Krishna. So we cook for Krishna and offer the bhoga to Krishna but once it is prasadam then we need to honor it only. The thing is if we reheat it then you have to ask the question ‘who am I reheating it for?’ and the answer can not be Krishna, because it is already offered to Krishna, He has already tasted it. So we are reheating it for our own sense pleasure.
So that is the reason, and the problem, if we reheat it we are doing that for ourselves, not for Krishna, and that is a problem because when we do things for ourselves then there will be a karmic reaction to that, good or bad, that we have to suffer or enjoy in the future. So this reheating of the Krishna prasadam will entangle us more and more in the cycle of birth and death.
I must admit that I also sometimes reheat prasadam and will have to consider this… But what I have written about is the correct understanding.
As far as cooking you just have to learn to cook for Prabhupada and Krishna. It is not difficult. Just learn how to do it…
The Prabhupada lectures you can purchase at:
http://krishnastore.com/srila-prabhupada-mp3-audio-library-now-on-dvds-h-krishna-404.html
everything for less than $20 and you can listen and download for free at:
http://krishna.tv
If you are working at night then you can read Prabhupada’s books during the day? Why not? You have to adjust. In the material world we will never find a perfect arrangement for anything. So you know what you have to do. You have to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly follow the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day [and only eat Krishna prasadam...]. Actually there are many things but these are the main ones. And you just have to do these things and around that fit the activities you have to perform for maintaining your material body which would include doing something to make some money so you can maintain yourself and your family if you want to have one.
So we just have to adjust and learn the things like how to cook for Prabhupada and Krishna and just do it.
I cook kitery and chapatis every day and offer that lunch to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and I get to eat wonderful Krishna prasadam every day. I am always in amazement as to how such simple rice, dhal and vegetables can become so delicious and tasty after offering to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna… It is very simple to cook, takes less than an hour, and honestly it is completely satisfying and wonderful. Of course you can cook and offer so many wonderful things to Krishna. Devotees of Krishna are of course good cooks. Because they want to make nice things to offer to Krishna…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
How about sutak period!!???
As we cannot offer food to lord
Hare Krishna
This is just a Hindu tradition. It is not important. What is important is that you are constantly engaged in Krishna kirtan and that will drive away anything that may be inauspicious. We do not follow these Hindu things. There is no time when we can not serve Srila Prabhupada and Krishna by preparing nice offerings and offering them.
So the offerings to Krishna must go on in any situation. If you have established some sort of Deity worship in your house then you have to keep cooking for Krishna and making regular offerings in all circumstances.
So the offerings to Krishna should never stop and you should never eat anything which is not Krishna prasadam, Krishna’s mercy…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare krishna.
Sorry to write down like this!!
But in one calendar printed by ISKCON I have read that one should not touch god during sutak periods!!so I was confused.
Hare krishna
Well if it is printed like that on an ISKCON calendar then that ISKCON calendar is bogus. You will find many bogus things in today’s ISKCON. It is better to just read Srila Prabhupada’s books and get your information about Krishna consciousness directly from Srila Prabhupada. In this way you will always be getting the correct information…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Many thanks for the right guidance
Dear Prabhu,
Pray that you are keeping well. Maharaj i am very sorry to trouble you but one of our cats has  leukeamia  and is her final stages. She has stopped eating and only drinks a little water now and then. What do you suggest we do for her as the vet has suggested euthanasia. We would like her to advance to a higher level in her next life and dont know what to do as we are reluctant to put her down as we are not aware of the consequences for her  and us should we proceed with such an act . Can you please advise us?
Thank You
Hare Krishna.
Narvin and Cindy Maharaj.
It is better not to get too attached to cats and dogs otherwise it is possible you will remember them at the time of death and in the next life there is a good chance you will take on the body of a cat which would be a great step backwards as it is not easy for a cat to practice Krishna consciousness.
Of course a devotee sees all living entities equally so he sees the spirit soul in a cat in the same way as he sees the spirit soul in a man. So there is no difference really in the way a pure devotee will treat a cat and a man. In any case he will try to help the living entity encaged in the material body elevate his consciousness to Krishna consciousness so that in the next life he can take a human body at least or go back home, back to Godhead if possible.
There is no ‘mercy killing’. The final time of life is a good opportunity to come closer to Krishna so it is better to let your cat die naturally and let him take Krishna prasadam and hear the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra and in that way his consciousness will be elevated and he will at least get a human body in the next life.
But you have to be careful not to become like Jada Bharata who was a great saint living in the Himalayan mountains who was seriously practicing spiritual life but saved a poor baby deer from being eaten by a lion and over the time he became very attached to that baby dear, so much so that he could no longer concentrate on his spiritual practices, he was instead always thinking of that baby deer. So he died thinking of the deer and had to take birth again in the body of a deer…
So you have to consider all these things and do the needful.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you very much for your advice regarding our cat Prabhu. She left her body on the 1 April but we did exactly what we thought was right to do for her and it was the right thing seeing from your reply. Thank very much once again. May Lord Krishna bless you with his mercy and abundance of bhakti
From Cindy and Narvin
hare krishna…prabhu i am a 18 year old boy from india…the thing is that i suffer from two disorders named ocd and pyschosis…one of the symptoms of ocd is that one is excessively religious and psychosis symptoms are being in a alternative reality…now the problem is that my krishna consciouness and spirituality is taken as a symbol of my disorders…i am scolded by my parents for it and i cant offer food to krishna as so…so how can i help myself in such a situation…i must have been a sinner in my previous birth so i have these disorders…how can i free myself from such sins which i have done…and my parents are not irreligious person…they beleive in gods and worship many demigods…but they dont understand the path which i have taken… please help me prabhu…what should i do
Hare Krishna Himansh
You should avoid these nonsense terms and just become Krishna conscious by reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and chanting Hare Krishna. You can do it in a quiet way without making a lot of fuss and unnecessarily agitating your parents and family. Just keep on chanting Hare Krishna, reading Prabhupada’s books and offering to Krishna. Don’t take any notice of them, but at the same time be nice and polite to them and agree with everything they say, but don’t actually do what they say. Don’t let them disturb your Krishna consciousness, but at the same time try not to unnecessarily disturb them with your Krishna consciousness… Be nice to them. Be sane and friendly. But do not compromise any of your Krishna conscious principles.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hara Krishna Prabu
All glories to srila prabupada!
Thankyou for ur reply!Prabu I had a major tussel with my rittvik temple commander on reheating of prasadam it started when I encountered a conversation of prabupada wherin he blasts a devotee for reheating mahaprasada by using microwave and said “I never told u to reheat it I just told to bring the prasada” my temple commander said that it’s a localised incident prabupada says different things at different times it’s not easy to understand what prabupada means. But I was not convinced and thanks to your answer I now know the truth but I would like u to quote prabupada (Carl Jung says”mind is only capable of making sense or nonsense not know what’s wright or wrong”) coz the reason given by you for not reheating is tat it’s not for krishna. I am asking this so that I can validate it. And you know prabupada allows us to take hot water bath which is not for Krishna’s sake but due to our inability to tolarate cold water. So I would appreciate it if u could quote prabupada on this issue so that it’ll put a fullstop to my issue.
Regards
utsav
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Really I think this reheating prasadam issue is more stressed in ISKCON than it was ever stressed by Srila Prabhupada. I do not know of a quote where Prabhupada says directly ‘don’t reheat prasadam.’ There may be, but I do not know it.
There were no microwave ovens when Srila Prabhupada was physically present on the planet, they hadn’t been invented yet, or at least they were not being marketed yet, so your ‘Prabhupada quote’ is wrong.
And anyhow no one would dare reheat anything to offer to Srila Prabhupada. For offering to Srila Prabhupada everything has to be freshly cooked obviously. Prabhupada is not different from Krishna. So as you can’t just reheat something you cooked yesterday and offer it to Krishna again you can’t do this with Prabhupada either… Prabhupada only ate lunch and he had his cook freshly cook for him each day…
But really reheating prasadam is not a very serious offense…
Many temples reheat prasadam, and as I said I also do it sometimes. In a perfect world you should only cook the amount that you need and it should all be consumed and you cook freshly the next time. That is the proper way and that is what we should do. But sometimes in our preaching work it is hard to predict how much prasadam will be necessary so you end up with a lot of extra prasadam. And you know prasadam should not be wasted. And Prasadam can be taken also after. But if it is subji and it is just coming out of the refrigerator then if you serve that freezing cold subji to the devotees they will not be able to digest it… And they may get sick…
So you know one has to be practical. Ideally we should organize to cook only the correct amount so that it is all served out and all honored by the devotees and then there is none left over and the next time it is freshly cooked and offered and then there is no problem. But sometimes there is prasadam left over and then we have to do something with it…
Srila Prabhupada does say that the prasadam can not be taken back into the kitchen again after it is taken out to be distributed. So temples generally have a ‘prasadam fridge’ where the left over prasadam goes that is outside the kitchen. But these are just practical organization things and for people living in their own homes you know this is not the main point.
The main point is not to ever eat anything that is not cooked by devotees with love and devotion and offered to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Other things like this one simply has to use his common sense. It is certainly not a very good thing to get into a big argument with a devotee about, reheating prasadam…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hara Krishna Prabu
All glories to srila prabupada!
Pabu’s this is in regard’s to demigods not being pure devotees.
1.I quote u
“They are all devotees of Krishna, but not pure devotees, because they still have some material desire they have been promoted to the position of demigods instead of being able to go back home, back to Godhead…”
Here’s some contradiction Lord Shiva is a pure devotee (vaishnava nam yatha shambu) his son subramanya(Kartikaya commander of gods army in baghvadh githa)
is also a pure devotee this I can say as I have seen a temple in Mangalore Karnataka India (called Kudupu Anantapadmanabha temple) Here subramanya swamy is worshipped beside Ananta and Padmanaba swamy. He holds shanka and chakra
just like vishnudhootas so his body is spiritual and he is an eternal associate of padmanabha swamy. Does it not contradict the statment made by u to Manuel.
2. Prabu in BG Lord krishna identifies with many demigods for example he says among commanders I am Kartikeya so what perplexes me is it voilates a offence(1 amoung 10 offenses) in chanting wherin one considers demigods like lord shiva, brahma to be equal to lord vishnu. so to consider demigods as equal to lord vishnu is a offence but lord himself proclames himself with many demigods and exalted personalities in BG.
I am perplexed with it can u resolve my issue?
Regards
utsav hegde k
Hare Krishna Utsav
Lord Shiva has a special place. He is not actually one of the demigods who are generally all jiva-tattva like us. You or me, for example, could become qualified and promoted to the position of Lord Brahma or Suriya or Indra, Chandra, etc. But we can never become Lord Shiva, nor can we ever become Krishna or any of His Visnu-tattva expansions. Lord Shiva belongs to his own category, shiva-tattva, you could say.
And the description of Lord Shiva is that he is Krishna transformed by contact with the material energy. And the example to explain this given by Srila Prabhupada is that of milk when it gets transformed into yoghurt by contact with some sour element. Actually yoghurt is only milk, it is made from milk only, but it has completely different qualities to milk. So Shiva is like that. He is Visnu only, but in Shiva Visnu has been transformed by contact with the material energy, and as the milk, when transformed by the contact of some sour element, is transformed into yoghurt it no longer acts as milk but acts in a completely different way, and can no longer be turned back into milk, once Lord Shiva is manifest by Visnu in contact with the material energy he becomes Shiva and acts completely differently to Visnu. And one can not get the same benefits from worshiping Lord Shiva as he can by worshiping Lord Visnu or Krishna.
Lord Shiva, as we know him, is in the material world, and can only give benedictions within the material world. So his benedictions are limited only to the material world. Therefore if one is interested in getting out of the material world there is no point in asking Lord Shiva for this. Yes Lord Shiva is a great Vaisnava, and if you approach him with that understanding one can worship and glorify him in this regard.
In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna does not identify with any demigods. Krishna clearly establishes that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that He is the Supreme, that we have to surrender to and worship Him. What you are referring to in the Bhagavad-gita in the opulences of the absolute chapter is that Krishna states that anything that is exceptional or wonderful can be understood as Him. And he mentions many things, not just great demigods, but airvarata the elephant, that Himalayan mountains, etc. These are examples of exceptional powerful or great things that Krishna is using to try to explain the extent of His greatness to materialists who can only conceive of things in relation to something they can imagine or something they can experience. It is not that Krishna is ‘identifying’ with the elephant of the Himalayan mountains or the demigods he mentions, Krishna is using all these great things to try and give the reader a hint of his greatness. Everything powerful and great in the material world is simply a small exhibition of Krishna’s unlimited power and greatness. And this is what that section of the Bhagavad-gita is about. It is a great mistake to say Krishna is identifying with demigods in the Bhagavad-gita and you are trying to say by this that the demigods are the same as Krishna. Which is a very, very great mistake…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa,
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
This is a truly great article, thank you so much for it. It has given us so much insight into how we can serve Krishna properly.
I do have some questions to ask if i may.
*Regarding water, can we dirink normal unoffered water, or does it have to be offered? And can I drink it in the morning before my daily puja and japa.
* Is there a difference between offering prasadam to Krishna photo and Srila prabhupada/Panca tattva photo. I ask this because I am afraid I might cause too many offences whilst worshiping and offering Krishna food. Therefore I only worship and offer panca tattva and Srila prabhupada food as I was told that they are more merciful and will accept small offences. This problem mainly arises because at the moment I dont have a tulsi plant, so I can’t use it whilst offering the food. And is it wrong to just worship Srila Prabupada and panca tattva photo, and not Krishna. I do have a radha Kriahna photo in my shrine, but I just focus mainly on worshiping panca tattva and Srila prabhupada.
*Lastly, I use sunflower oil for arati. Is this alright or is ghee better to use? And are dried fruit such as raisins and sultans in the mode of goodness or ignaorance?
Please forgive me if these questions are too obvious.
Your servent,
Mack
Hare Krishna Mack
If necessary you can offer water by saying ‘Sri Visnu, Sri Visnu, Sri Visnu’ then drinking it.
We always actually offer to Srila Prabhupada and he offers to Srila Bhaktsiddhanta and in this way the offering goes to Krishna through the disciplic succession. So we are never actually directly offering to Krishna. So you are doing the correct thing in concentrating on offering to Srila Prabhupada and Panca-Tattva.
It is true that Radha-Krishna Deity worship is more difficult that worshiping Srila Prabhupada, the Panca-Tattva and Jagannatha. So it is better to do as you are doing and mainly concentrate on worshiping Srila Prabhupada and Panca-Tattva. There is no problem of course having the Radha-Krishna picture there also.
You should make the effort and get ghee for offering aroti. It is not very expensive and you can make it yourself also from butter if you need to. Vegetable oil is not very good for offering to Krishna.
Dried fruit is OK for offering to Krishna, it is in the mode of goodness. But fresh fruit is nice of course… We have to make the best offering we can but at the same time have to be practical considering the situation, etc.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa,
Thank you so much for the reply.
Just to clarify, so we can drink unoffered water before daily puja and japa?
Thanks,
Mack
Hare Krishna Mack
We can not drink anything if we have not offered it to Krishna. But you can offer water to Krishna by chanting ‘Sri Visnu, Sri Visnu, Sri Visnu’.
Or, better, you can keep some offered water in a container and drink that, but in any case we can not accept anything that is not first offered to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa,
Thank you once more for the reply.
You have helped me so much, thank you for your great kindness.
Your servent,
Mack
Dear Sir,I donot qualify as a devotee or a Krsna conscious person yet but have started taking some steps to get there, having been influenced by reading some of your posts as well as the “Gita as it is” and “Krsna consciousness handbook”.Are you absolutely sure that just by chanting the mantra I shall attain peace and happiness and become Krsna conscious.I must say that after listening to the George Harrisson mantra song on the youtube(I have saved it in my pc)I felt a bit different,maybe a bit happy as well.I have 2 questions,would you be kind enough to answer.
How much is 16 rounds of chanting?(ie multiply 16 with what number).
In the introduction of “BG as it is”Shri Prabhupada says that “Lord and the lord’s name is no different,there is no difference between his name, form, quality and pastimes,Krsna and His inner spirit is not different”.I have thought over this statement for sometime.Please could you explain this line.Of course one’s name is not different from him as far as the name identifies the person but one’s name is certainly not the flesh and blood him.I can like a catchy name but I may not like him when I meet him in person.Thank you.Dipankar.
16 rounds is 16 time one round. One round means chanting the Hare Krishna mantra 108 times. This is done by devotees on ‘japa beads’ and we use counting beads to keep track of how many mantras we have chanted.
Krishna and His name are identical. You can not compare Krishna’s name with a material name. Spiritual sound is very different from material sound. Krishna is completely present in the form of His name in the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra. This Hare Krishna maha-mantra is the sound incarnation of Krishna. It is Krishna completely in every way and contains all of Krishna’s power, potencies and energies…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
For people with no access to devotees or temples this website is a treasure-house. And what a joy and relief to know that Srila Prabhupada is with us!
After reading many times the post about offering food to Lord Krishna and all its comments I now *begin* to understand the rhythm and details of cooking, offering, and honoring prasadam. I plan to start as soon as I receive a photo of Srila Prabhupada in the mail and buy new dishes for the prasadam. I do not want to prepare food for personal sense enjoyment anymore!
But I think I have a serious problem with pronunciation of the “Prasadam Offering Mantras”. I hope there is an aid to pronunciation of these mantras, especially audio, because I have no experience with Sanskrit. I do not want to be offensive as I chant everyday or every meal. I have ordered a “travel altar” but do not think recorded prasadam mantras come with that. I’m sure many people could learn by hearing audio of one slow repetition, along with your transliteration.
I feel this is very important and that bad pronunciation of the mantras is worse than silence? Should I just chant the mahamantra only?
Thank you, Madhudvisa dasa, for your patience in reading my concerns. I look forward to your reply. When I learn to pray, I will ask that you continue to receive strength for your devotion to Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada.
(Missoula, Montana)
Hare Krishna Deborah
It is very good news. Krishna knows what you are trying to chant so if there is some imperfection in the pronunciation of the mantras in the beginning it does not matter. Krishna knows what you are trying to say. So it is best to chant the mantras as best you can even if you are not completely sure of the pronunciation. The traveling temple comes with a morning program CD and that contains the audio of all the prayers and matras which we chant during the morning program. Srila Prabhupada’s pranam mantras and the Hare Krishna mantra and Panca-tattva mantra are on that, and you will hear many other mantras chanted and you will soon get the idea how things are chanted and you will have no problems with the other two mantras.
So just try your best and Krishna will give you the intelligence how to pronounce the mantras properly. There is a Sanskrit pronunciation guide in the back of all of Srila Prabhupada’s books and you can get many hints from this. One hint is the letters that have the line on top of them are ‘long’ so they are pronounced for twice as long as the short versions of the same letter.
But certainly just do everything to your best ability, there will be some imperfections in the beginning, but that does not matter, they will soon be corrected.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you for the encouragement on how I will be able to learn. I’ll do my best today and begin to chant the profound mantras as I offer prasadam.
Hare Krishna!
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa ji,
How long the kirtan and aroti should be?
Kirtanya sada hari… We should chant Hare Krishna always. So you can keep chanting Hare Krishna forever. That would be best.
You have to adjust according to time and place of course. And it depends on the situation. How many others are there, etc. You have to use your common sense on these things…