6f: Diet

Diet

The Krsna Concious diet is strictly spiritual; devotees eat only food which is prepared for and offered to Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gita, Krsna states that He accepts "a leaf, a flower, some fruit or some water," if offered in spontaneous love. Based solely on the desires of Krsna, the devotees eat only vegetarian food, prepared from milk, sugar, grains, fruits, vegetables, etc., and refrain from eating meat, fish and eggs. By the act of offering nicely prepared food to the Deities, the foodstuffs take on all spiritual properties and are accepted as prasadam, or divine remnants. Because it is offered to and accepted by Krsna, prasadam is a spiritual purifying process on a par with chanting or hearing the pastimes of Krsna from the Scriptures. Anyone who joins with devotees in taking prasadam at any Krsna conscious temple will find that prasadam is sumptuous, nutritious and plentiful. And simply by taking prasadam one can achieve spiritual progress unobtainable for thousands of births in which no tangible link is made with God.

There are many kitchen rules for cooks and helpers preparing foodstuffs to be offered to the Lord. The primary rule is to think of Krsna while preparing the foods. Other rules include:

• One should wash hands thouroughly upon entering the kitchen

• Foodstuffs should be washed as they are prepared.

• Nothing that touches the floor or other contaminated areas, such as the sink or garbage pails, should be used, unless it can be immediately cleansed.

• In all preparations, only fresh foods should be used. Neither canned foods nor leftoves are used.

• Leftovers should never be brought back to the kitchen, but should be kept in a specific place in the dining room.

• In cooking, one should refrain from using garlic, onions or mushrooms and from mixing salt with fresh milk (although salt can be mixed with other milk cultures).

• One should not taste food during its preparation, not even to see if it is done or if it is seasoned properly. Krsna is the first to relish prasadam.

When the food is nicely prepared, we offer it back to the Source from which everything emanates. If we remember that His "hunger" is proportional to our love, the offering is sure to be successful. One must simply place love, and a generous portion of each item to be offered, on a plate or metal tray, along with a glass of fresh water, and set it before the Deity. One should then prostrate himself and pray: "O Lord, this material body is a place of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths to death. Somehow, we have fallen into this ocean of matterial sense enjoyment, and of all the senses tongue is most voracious and uncontrollable; it is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world. But You, dear Krsna, are very kind to us and have given us such nice prasadam, just to control the tongue. So now we take that prasadam to our full satisfaction, and glorify You, Lord-Radha and Krsna-and in love call for the help of Lord Caitanya and Nityananda. "

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