ACK 2: A Temple of Kṛṣṇa in Your Home

A Temple of Krsna in Your Home

Guests visiting a temple of Krsna for the first time are often puzzled by the ceremonial offering of vegetarian dishes to the form of Krsna on the altar-and understandably so. After all, what does the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Lord want with our little plate of rice and vegetables? Has He suddenly become hungry? Hasn't He created countless tons of food? Isn't God self-sufficient? Does Krsna really need these offerings of food?

In fact, Krsna does ask for these offerings, not because He needs our rice and vegetables, but because He wants our devotion. In Bhagavad-gita (9.26) He says, "If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it."

When Krsna asks us to offer Him food, we should understand that He is actually inviting us to reawaken our eternal loving relationship with Him. At first we comply in a mood of faith mixed with duty; later, as our realization matures, we do it with affection and love. Just as anybody naturally offers the best he has to his beloved, the devotee offers Krsna his wealth, his intelligence, his life, and his vegetarian food.

Krsna is the ultimate beloved of everyone, but how can we offer gifts to a beloved we don't yet know? The Vedic tradition can guide us. If you would like to try, but can't follow all the procedures, you can remember that when the great devotee Hanuman and his companions were building a bridge of large, heavy stones for King Rama, an incarnation of Krsna, a little spider also pleased the Lord by carrying the largest pebbles he could.

First, reserve a special place for the offering. It can be a tabletop or an entire room converted into a temple. Make an altar with a picture of Lord Krsna on it. On Krsna's left you will see Srimati Radharani, His eternal consort. She is Krsna's pleasure potency, and it is She who awards love of Godhead to the sincere devotee.

If possible, put a photograph of a Krsna-conscious spiritual master on the altar. The spiritual master accepts the offering of his disciple and offers it to his own spiritual master, who in turn offers it to his spiritual master. In this way the offering ascends through a succession of spiritual masters, until it reaches Lord Krsna. The devotees of the Hare Krsna movement always have a photograph of Srila Prabhupada, the founder-spiritual master of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness (ISKCON), and if a devotee is a disciple of one of Srila Prabhupada's disciples, he also has a photograph of his own spiritual master.

A Krsna-conscious spiritual master who is visibly present in the world can personally guide you to perfection in spiritual life. Just before Srila Prabhupada left this material world, he asked some of his senior disciples to become spiritual masters and perpetuate the Vedic tradition. If you would like to find out more about these spiritual masters and how you can meet one of them, you can inquire at any ISKCON center.

From the shopping to the cooking, meditate on pleasing Krsna. Look for the freshest and best fruits and vegetables. Shopping in supermarkets requires care. There's more to it than simply avoiding obvious meat, fish, and eggs. Take the time to read every label. And don't assume that products stay the same; they change. Watch out for rennet (made from the lining of a calf's stomach and used to make cheese), gelatin (boiled bones, hooves and horns, used to set foods), and lecithin (if it is not marked "soy lecithin," it may come from eggs). Anything with onions or garlic is unofferable to Krsna, because these foods, the Vedas say, increase the mode of ignorance. Watch out for animal fat. Many products have it. And if a product has a blank label, don't buy it: the manufacturer doesn't want you to know what's inside.

You can also look into alternatives to supermarket shopping. Many cooperatives have inexpensive produce that is free from chemical fertilizers and pesticides. And, if you have a little space in your yard, why not grow something for Krsna yourself?

Now you are ready to cook for Krsna. Here's how we do it in our temples:

• The cook thinks about Krsna's pleasure, not his own. He thinks, "My Lord has kindly provided me with these ingredients, so let me combine them and cook them in such a way that He will be pleased." Chanting the Hare Krsna mantra or listening to devotional recordings helps him remember Krsna and he avoids mundane talk in the kitchen.

• Cleanliness is next to Godliness. The cook should have a clean body and a clean mind, and wear clean clothes in the kitchen. Hair should be tied back so it stays out of the food and out of the fire. The kitchen and cooking utensils should be spotless, so he takes a minute to sponge off the work areas before beginning to cook. "Krsna will accept a very simple offering from a clean kitchen," Srila Prabhupada said, "but He will not accept an elaborate offering from a dirty kitchen."

• Prasada (food already offered) and bhoga (food not yet offered) are never mixed. We don't want to offer Krsna the same thing twice, so we keep prasada in specific containers so that it won't be accidentally mixed with bhoga.

• This may surprise you: the cook never tastes the food before offering it-not even to test it. Krsna must be the first to relish it. Experience teaches the cook to judge the correct amounts of seasonings. If something is taken before being offered to the Deity, the entire preparation is polluted and can no longer be offered.

When the meal is ready, it is time to offer it to Krsna. In our temples we arrange portions of the food on diningware kept especially for this purpose. (No one else eats from these dishes). The rest of the food stays in the pots until the offering is finished.

Put a small glass of cool water by Krsna's plate, along with a spoon and a tiny plate with a little salt and pepper. You might also light one or two sticks of incense to provide a pleasant atmosphere. After putting the plate on the altar, recite the Hare Krsna mantra:

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Recite the mantra three times. Then leave the offering on the altar for a few minutes. The Hare Krsna mantra is a prayer: "My dear Radharani and Krsna, please engage me in Your devotional service."

The more our consciousness is fixed on pleasing Krsna, the more He enjoys the offering. We can offer Krsna the best dishes we can but what really attracts Krsna is our sincerity. Our love and devotion are the essential ingredients. Lord Krsna is also called Bhavagrahi-janardana, which means "One whose pleasure is the devotional attitude of His devotee." Once, when Krsna was present on earth five thousand years ago, His friend and pure devotee Vidura was offering Him bananas. But Vidura was overcome with devotional ecstasy because of Krsna's presence, and was inadvertently discarding the fruits and offering the skins, which Krsna ate with relish because they were offered out of love. Another great devotee, Sanatana Gosvami, was so poor that he could offer only dry chapatis to Krsna; but to Krsna they tasted like nectar because they were offered with love.

After the offering, remove Krsna's plate from the altar and transfer the prasada to a serving plate. Wash Krsna's plate and bowls and put them away. Now the prasada can be served. The prasada that comes directly from the Lord's plate is called mahaprasada (maha means "great," prasada means "mercy") and is extra special. The person serving should see that everyone gets some maha-prasada.

The proper mentality for eating prasada is described by Srila Prabhupada in the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta: "Prasada is nondifferent from Krsna. Therefore, instead of eating prasada, one should honor it. When taking prasada, one should not consider the food to be ordinary preparations. Prasada means favor. One should consider prasada a favor of Krsna. Krsna is very kind. In this material world we are all attached to tasting various types of food. Therefore, Krsna 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 prasada one makes advancement in spiritual life. Therefore, we should never consider ordinary food on an equal level with prasada."

In other words, if while eating prasada one thinks of it as a manifestation of Krsna's mercy, he is considered to have actually stopped eating; now his eating has become honoring. By thus honoring Krsna, who has come in the form of prasada, one pleases Krsna, and when Krsna is pleased His devotee is pleased.

This is real yoga, linking with the Supreme Lord. The simple process of offering food makes us aware of an essential teaching of the Vedas: everything comes from Krsna, and everything should be offered back to Him for His pleasure.

So every day when you cook, cook for Krsna and offer the food to Him. Before long, your home will start to feel like a temple, and you'll be well on your way back to Godhead.

If you are new to offering your food to Krsna, we suggest the recitation of the Hare Krsna mantra as the easiest method. However, if you like, you can recite the same prayers that the devotees use. Acknowledging that it is through the mercy of the spiritual master and Lord Caitanya that Krsna accepts our offering, every devotee recites three times the pranam mantra to his own spiritual master (you can use the pranam mantra of any of the present ISKCON spiritual masters) and the following two prayers in glorification of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Krsna.

namo-maha-vadanyaya krishna-prema-pradaya te
krishnaya krishna chaitanya-namne gaura-tvise namah

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

namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca
jagat-hitaya krishnaya govindaya namo namah

"I offer my respectful obeisances to the Supreme Absolute Truth, Krsna, Who is the well-wisher of the cows and the brahmanas as well as the living entities in general. I offer my repeated obeisances to Govinda, who is the pleasure reservoir for all the senses."

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