KC 101

Prasadam

patram puñpam phalam toyamyo me bhaktya prayacchati tad aham bhakty-upahåtam

asnämi prayatatmanah

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.Gita 9/27

Easy Process

For the intelligent person, it is essential to be in Krishna consciousness, engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, in order to achieve a permanent, blissful abode for eternal happiness. The process of achieving such a marvelous result is very easy. Krishna wants only loving service and nothing more.

Offer in LoveKrishna accepts even a little flower from His pure devotee. He is not in need of anything from anyone, because He is self-sufficient, and yet He accepts the offering of His devotee in an exchange of love and affection. The important element, in preparation, in serving and in offering, is to act with love for Krishna.

yajna-sistasinah santomucyante sarva-kilbiaaih

bhunjate te tv agham päpmye pacanty ätma-käranät

“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.” Gita 3/13

In the Seventh Chapter, Krishna has

explained that He impregnates the living

entities into material nature. This is done by His

looking upon material nature. And so in this

instance, Krishna's hearing the

devotee's words of love in offering foodstuffs is wholly identical with His eating and actually tasting. [As-They-Surrender-Unto-Me ]

Not even vegetarian;

Krishna prasadam.

We don't accept even

vegetarian diet. We

simply accept

Krishna-prasadam. Krishna says that "Foodstuff prepared from vegetable kingdom, anyone offering Me with devotion and faith, I eat."

Preparing Prasadam

• Avoid

• Meat, fish, eggs

• Rennet, gelatin

• Onion, garlic

• Tasting while cooking

Offering Prasadam• Be hygienic• Lord’s plate &

utensils• Allow 5 minutes

for Lord to eat• Consciousness• (food cooked by

nondevotees - canvas)

• Ring bell

Prayersnama om vishnu-padaya krishna prestaya bhutalesrimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti naminenamas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarinenirvisesha sunnyavadi-pasctya-desatarine.

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda, 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 Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism."

namo maha-vadanaya krishna-prema-pradayate tekrishnaya krishna-caitanya-namine gaura-tvse namah

– [Cc. Madhya 19.53]

"O most munificent incarnation! You are Krishna Himself appearing as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimate Radharani, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krishna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You."

namo brahmana-devaya go-bramana-hitaya cajagad hitaya krishnaya govindaya namo namah

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Krishna, who is the worshipable Deity for all bramanas, the well-wisher of the cows and the bramanas, and the benefactor of the whole world. I offer my repeated obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, known as Krishna and Govinda."

Maha Prasadam

Maha-prasadam is nondifferent from Krishna. Instead of eating maha-prasadam, one should honor it. One should consider maha-prasadam a favor of Krishna. Krishna eats many nice varieties of food and offers the food back to the devotees, so that not only are one’s demands for various tastes satisfied, but by eating prasadam one makes advancement in spiritual life. We should never consider maha prasadam on a level with ordinary food.

“The Hare Krishna Movement is based on this principle: chant the Hare Krishna mantra at every moment, both inside and outside of the temples, and, as far as possible, distribute prasadam.”

ISKCON Communications 1993

“The fourth verse of the guruvastakam states that a guru, the spiritual master, encourages prasadam distribution, remnants of foodstuff distributed to the public. Ours is not dry philosophy, simply we talk and go home. No. We distribute prasadam, very sumptuous prasadam.” Upsala University

Engaging the tongue

“If you engage your tongue in the service of the Lord, then you realize God realization. The tongue engagement is you chant the holy name of the Lord, and you take the prasadam, remnants of foodstuff given to the

Lord. By these two methods. You don't require to be very highly educated philosopher, scientist, and a rich man and..., to realize God.

Upsala University

Prasadam prayer“This material body is a lump of ignorance, and the senses are networks of paths to death. We are fallen into the ocean of material sense enjoyment. Of all the senses, the tongue is the most voracious and uncontrollable. It is very difficult to conquer over the tongue in this world, but Krishna is very kind to us. He has sent us very nice prasädam to conquer the tongue. Now let us take that prasädam to our full satisfaction and glorify His Lordship Rädhä and Krishna and in love call for Lord Caitanya and Nityänanda to help us.”

sarira abidya-jal jodendriya tahe kaljive phele visaya-sagoreta’ra madhye jihwa ati lobhamoy sudurmatita’ke jeta kathina samsarekrsna baro doyamoy koribare jihwa jayswa-prasad-anna dilo bhaisei annamrta pao radha-krsna-guna gaopreme dako caitanya-nitai

Maha Prasdam

maha-prasade govindenama-brahmani vaisnavesvalpa-punya-vatam rajanvisvaso naiva jayate

(Mahabharata)

O king, for those who have amassed very few pious activities, their faith in maha-prasada, in Sri Govinda, in the Holy Name and in the Vaisnava is never born.

“Everyone should take prasadam.... It is called prasada-seva [service],

not prasadam enjoyment. Prasadam means giving service. Prasadam is as good as Krishna and should be respected as

good as Krishna. So one must have faith that it is not material. Those who are attached to the Krishna consciousness movement and are attached to the service, they should take prasadam-first-class prasadam. Everyone likes the taste of prasadam.” Lilamrta

Both prasadam and the Lord’s name are on the Brahman platform, or spiritual platform. One should take prasadam with great faith and should chant the holy name of the Lord and worship the Deity in the temple, always remembering that the Deity, maha-prasadam and the holy name do not belong to the mundane platform.

How to Serve Prasadam

We should never waste Krishna prasadam. Best thing is to cook only what is required and then give each person what he wants. That is the Vedic system, that the people sit in rows behind their plates and servers pass down the rows and put a very small portion of each foodstuff on each plate, unless there is some objection by a person. Then nothing is given. Then if anyone wants more, the servers pass up and down the rows continually and give more if anyone requests. In this way nothing is wasted and everyone is satisfied.

• SP letter to Kirtiraja (November 27, 1971)

1. All to be served should be invited to sit on the floor, and prasadam should be served by qualified devotees.2. Those who are serving should be very clean, peaceful, and satisfied. They should eat before serving, if necessary. They should try not to speak while serving.3. Serve just the right amount so that nothing is wasted.4. Seniors should be served first. Householders should serve the guests. Old people and children should be served first.

5. Place salt and lemon on each plate before those to be served are seated.6. Always serve water first.7. Go around serving seconds until everyone is satisfied. Don't be stingy; don't hold anything back because you want to take it later. Prasadam is meant for distribution.8. Do not touch plates with the serving spoon. Touching the plate contaminates the spoon. If a spoon becomes contaminated, you should wash it.9. Don't let your fingers touch any of the preparations, even water. Salt should never be served by hand, use a spoon.

10. Never touch prasadam with your feet or step over it.

11. Serve the prasadam from serving buckets.

12. Don't drag buckets along the floor or make clanging noises with pot handles or utensils. Serve quietly.

13. After everyone is finished honoring prasadam, clean the place immediately.

“As you take foodstuff from a infected area, you become infected with some disease, so this is Krishna infected, prasadam. You take it, and one day you'll be diseased with Krishna consciousness.” Fiji 1976

George: If God is in everything, why shouldn't you taste Him when you eat? I think that prasadam is a very important thing. Krishna is God, so He's absolute: His name, His form, prasadam, it's all Him. They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so if you can get to a man's spirit soul by eating, and it works, why not do it? There's nothing better than having been chanting and dancing, or just sitting and talking philosophy, and then suddenly the devotees bring out the prasadam. It's a blessing from Krishna, and it's spiritually important.

Regarding the attitude for taking prasadam, if you think it is something palatable, so let me take more and more, then that is sense gratification. But still it is prasadam, so it will act. Prasadam is transcendental, but one should not take too much.

Jayananda's world was about prasadam. His whole day and his activities all revolved around prasadam. Collecting the bhoga, preparing the bhoga, offering bhoga to Srila Prabhupada, and serving prasadam to others, and taking it himself, and then speaking praises of prasadam – that was the typical day for Jayananda.

Jayananda

When he wasn't collecting the materials, or planning the next festival (of which the distribution of prasad was central), or when he wasn't cooking the

offering, or offering it, or serving or honoring it, then he was thinking about prasad, or glorifying prasad or talking about the Lord's mercy.

He had great faith in the process of prasadam and its transcendental effect upon the conditioned souls. This was his life and soul – to give prasad to others, as much as possible. In this way, this was his whole day, this was his whole existence, and it was all about the transcendental process of distributing and taking prasad. A devotee of Krishna does not want any possessions or fame or followers, he is satisfied with simple Krishna prasadam and knowing he is Krishna's servant.

Govardhan

Annukut

Maha Prasadam Ki Jaya