Spiritual Food

Krsna consciousness, Srila Prabhupada would often say, is not dry. Devotees of Krsna are not dry renouncers. To prove it, Srila Prabhupada introduced the transcendental art and pleasure of cooking and eating in Krsna consciousness. He personally showed his disciples how to cook many varieties of palatable vegetarian dishes, offer them to the Supreme Lord, Krsna, for His satisfaction, and then accept the food thus sanctified as krsna-prasada-the mercy of Lord Krsna. This was another of Srila Prabhupada's transcendental desires: Let the whole world taste krsna-prasada!

By eating krsna-prasada, not only can one fulfill the demands of the tongue in a very nice way, but also, as understood from Bhagavad-gita, one becomes free from the reactions of all past sinful deeds and makes advancement in spiritual life. Thus purified, one is released from dualities and illusions, and one becomes eligible to render devotional service to the Supreme Lord. Srila Prabhupada, therefore, was always pleased to see that his disciples were eating only krsna-prasada. On many occasions, he personally cooked prasada and then served the devotees with his own hand. This was Srila Prabhupada's program: chanting, dancing, philosophy, and feasting. Anyone may come to any of Srila Prabhupada's temples and take sumptuous krsna-prasada, and especially on Sundays each temple invites guests to enjoy opulent prasada feasts. Directed by Srila Prabhupada, many temples have started prasada restaurants and even mobile kitchens to distribute the mercy of Krsna. And in India, where hunger is for many people a very real day-to-day problem, Srila Prabhupada started ISKCON Food Relief-a program to distribute prasada in massive quantities to the needy.

Even in his final days on earth, Srila Prabhupada asked to hear in detail about how prasada was being distributed in his temples, and although he himself was eating nothing at all and drinking only a few ounces of fruit juice, he took particular care to see that the devotees and guests who visited him in Vrndavan were all fed sumptuous krsna-prasada.