HKC 9: Beverages

There are many nice beverages to offer to Krsna, including fruit and vegetable juices of all varieties, and in the summer, combinations of different fruit juices can be frozen. The most simple beverage, however, which is available everywhere in the world, is water. In Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna requests that water be offered to Him in love, and elsewhere in the Gita He declares, "I am the taste in water." Water is universally appreciated for its pure taste, and that taste is Lord Krsna Himself. Without water we cannot live, and so a Krsna conscious devotee glorifies Lord Krsna for kindly supplying water to quench man's thirst.

Milk, praised both by modern nutritionists and the eternal Vedas as the "miracle food," is the single most important item in the Vedic diet, for it contains all the vitamins necessary to sustain the human body in good health. Even more importantly, the proteins, fats and vitamins found in milk are perfectly balanced for the development of the finer tissues of the brain, and thus milk is the perfect food for one who is seeking advancement in spiritual life. By Krsna's arrangement, the cow eats ordinary grass and transforms it into a delicious drink which is rich in all the food values necessary for good health and spiritual progress. When Lord Krsna appeared on earth He displayed His childhood pastimes as a cowherd boy, and He is worshiped for His childhood activities as a naughty butter thief. Thus He emphasized in many ways the importance of cows and milk products for human society. Lord Krsna is also celebrated as "Govinda" because He appeared as the reservoir of pleasure for the cows as well as all living beings. Devotees of Lord Krsna therefore acknowledge the kindness of the Lord by offering Him milk, and they feel great satisfaction in drinking milk prasadam and thinking about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord.