HKC: Foreword

Almost six years ago, I published the first article on Krsna cookery, entitled "krsna-prasadam: Food for the Body, Food for the Soul; and Food for God." Since I had just begun my life as a devotee, the article revealed my intrigue with the idea of cooking for God. Perhaps I was still rebelling against my puritan background, in which God had been depicted as a stuffy old man who certainly needed nothing like food. Actually, I still wonder at the idea of His eating-but a little differently. Today I think of how great God must be. On the one hand, He is sustaining all the planetary systems, men, animals and whatever might be, and on the other, He becomes "hungry" for the loving offering of a pure devotee: "If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it." (Bhagavad-gita, 9.26) Within this simple promise to His friend Arjuna, Krsna has given the rarest gem in all three worlds-loving reciprocation with Godhead. Were I not an individual, were God not an individual, and were there not the possibility of loving exchange, what would be the possibility of Absolute Pleasure? Pleasure cannot exist in a void or vacuum, for it is a product of activity; and the supreme activity is the exchange of love between persons. Everyone hankers for a lover. Then why should we settle for anyone less than the Supreme Lover, Krsna? Srila Prabhupada has given us the formula of how to attract Krsna. Krsna, being God, is not in need of anything. He is atmarama, or self-contained. But He is also the highest Pleasure Absolute, and for the purpose of pleasure He expands Himself by His pleasure potency into millions and billions of living beings who are all meant for His enjoyment. In the spiritual world such spiritual sparks of the Lord are eternally enjoying with the Lord, and their existence is called sac-cid-ananda-eternal, full of knowledge, and blissful. The living beings in this material world are also part of that pleasure potency, but due to forgetfulness of their relationship with Krsna, they are living independently, trying to lord it over the resources of material nature for their own pleasure. Such pleasure is only illusory, but the eternal pleasure resulting from loving communion with Krsna can at once be revived by the simple Krsna conscious process of dedicating all one's activities to the enjoyment of the Lord.

This transcendental cookbook is designed to help you transform one of the most important daily chores into a spiritual reservoir of bliss. You may follow it in all or in part. The idea is to completely engage you in service to Krsna, and it is promised that if you agree to be thus engaged, you will also en joy unlimitedly. If you cannot follow all the rules and regulations, follow what you can. At least one can prepare pure vegetarian foods with all care for cleanliness and then offer them simply with love and devotion. Even offering such foods with only the repetition of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is sufficient to render the highest benefit. The main point is to begin. Offer something nice to Krsna with love and devotion and see for yourself what happens. That is the miracle of prasadam!