KC 101
Prasadam
patram puñpam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahåtam
asnämi prayatatmanah
If one offers Me with
love and devotion a
leaf, a flower, fruit or
water, I will accept it.
Gita 9/27
Easy Process
For the intelligent person, it
is essential to be in Krishna
consciousness, engaged in
the transcendental loving
service of the Lord, in order
to achieve a permanent,
blissful abode for eternal
happiness. The process of
achieving such a marvelous
result is very easy. Krishna
wants only loving service
and nothing more.
Offer in Love
Krishna accepts even a little
flower from His pure devotee.
He is not in need of anything
from anyone, because He is
self-sufficient, and yet He
accepts the offering of His
devotee in an exchange of
love and affection. The
important element, in preparation, in serving
and in offering, is to act with love for Krishna.
yajna-sistasinah santo
mucyante sarva-kilbiaaih
bhunjate te tv agham päpm
ye pacanty ätma-käranät
“The devotees of the Lord are released
from all kinds of sins because they eat
food which is offered first for sacrifice.
Others, who prepare food for personal
sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.”
Gita 3/13
In the Seventh Chapter,
Krishna has explained that
He impregnates the living
entities into material
nature. This is done by His
looking upon material
nature. And so in this
instance, Krishna's
hearing the devotee's
words of love in offering
foodstuffs is wholly identical with His eating
and actually tasting.
[As-They-Surrender-Unto-Me ]
Not even vegetarian;
Krishna prasadam.
We don't accept even
vegetarian diet. We
simply accept
Krishna-prasadam. Krishna says that
"Foodstuff prepared from vegetable
kingdom, anyone offering Me with
devotion and faith, I eat."
Preparing Prasadam
•
•
•
•
•
Avoid
Meat, fish, eggs
Rennet, gelatin
Onion, garlic
Tasting while
cooking
Offering Prasadam
• Be hygienic
• Lord’s plate &
utensils
• Allow 5 minutes
for Lord to eat
• Consciousness
• (food cooked by
nondevotees canvas)
• Ring bell
Prayers
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna prestaya bhutale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesha sunnyavadi-pasctya-desatarine.
"I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine
Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda, who
is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter
at His lotus feet. Our respectful obeisances are
unto you, O spiritual master, servant of
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami. You are
kindly preaching the message of Lord
Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western
countries, which are filled with impersonalism and
voidism."
namo maha-vadanaya krishna-prema-pradayate te
krishnaya krishna-caitanya-namine gaura-tvse namah
– [Cc. Madhya 19.53]
"O most munificent incarnation! You are Krishna
Himself appearing as Sri Krishna Caitanya
Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color
of Srimate Radharani, and You are widely
distributing pure love of Krishna. We offer our
respectful obeisances unto You."
namo brahmana-devaya go-bramana-hitaya ca
jagad hitaya krishnaya govindaya namo namah
"I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord
Krishna, who is the worshipable Deity for all
bramanas, the well-wisher of the cows and the
bramanas, and the benefactor of the whole world. I
offer my repeated obeisances to the Personality of
Godhead, known as Krishna and Govinda."
Maha Prasadam
Maha-prasadam is nondifferent from
Krishna. Instead of eating maha-prasadam,
one should honor it. One should consider
maha-prasadam a favor of Krishna. Krishna
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 prasadam one
makes advancement in spiritual life. We
should never consider maha prasadam on a
level with ordinary food.
“The Hare Krishna Movement is based on
this principle: chant the Hare Krishna
mantra at every moment, both inside and
outside of the temples, and, as far as
possible, distribute prasadam.”
ISKCON Communications 1993
“The fourth verse of the
guruvastakam states that
a guru, the spiritual
master, encourages
prasadam distribution,
remnants of foodstuff
distributed to the public.
Ours is not dry
philosophy, simply we
talk and go home. No. We
distribute prasadam, very
sumptuous prasadam.”
Upsala University
Engaging the tongue
“If you engage your tongue in
the service of the Lord, then
you realize God realization.
The tongue engagement is you
chant the holy name of the Lord,
and you take the prasadam,
remnants of foodstuff given to the
Lord. By these two methods. You don't require to
be very highly educated philosopher, scientist,
and a rich man and..., to realize God.
Upsala University
Prasadam prayer
“This material body is a lump of ignorance,
and the senses are networks of paths to
death. We are fallen into the ocean of material
sense enjoyment. Of all the senses, the
tongue is the most voracious and
uncontrollable. It is very difficult to conquer
over the tongue in this world, but Krishna is
very kind to us. He has sent us very nice
prasädam to conquer the tongue. Now let us
take that prasädam to our full satisfaction
and glorify His Lordship Rädhä and Krishna
and in love call for Lord Caitanya and
Nityänanda to help us.”
sarira abidya-jal
jodendriya tahe kal
jive phele visaya-sagore
ta’ra madhye jihwa ati
lobhamoy sudurmati
ta’ke jeta kathina samsare
krsna baro doyamoy
koribare jihwa jay
swa-prasad-anna dilo bhai
sei annamrta pao
radha-krsna-guna gao
preme dako caitanya-nitai
Maha Prasdam
maha-prasade govinde
nama-brahmani vaisnave
svalpa-punya-vatam rajan
visvaso naiva jayate
(Mahabharata)
O king, for those who have amassed
very few pious activities, their faith in
maha-prasada, in Sri Govinda, in the
Holy Name and in the Vaisnava is never
born.
“Everyone should take
prasadam.... It is called
prasada-seva [service], not
prasadam enjoyment.
Prasadam means giving
service. Prasadam is
as good as Krishna and
should be respected as
good as Krishna. So one must have faith
that it is not material. Those who are
attached to the Krishna consciousness
movement and are attached to the service,
they should take prasadam-first-class
prasadam. Everyone likes the taste of
prasadam.” Lilamrta
Both prasadam and the
Lord’s name are on the
Brahman platform, or
spiritual platform. One
should take prasadam with
great faith and should chant
the holy name of the Lord
and worship the Deity in the
temple, always
remembering that the Deity,
maha-prasadam and the
holy name do not belong to
the mundane platform.
How to Serve Prasadam
We should never waste Krishna prasadam.
Best thing is to cook only what is required and
then give each person what he wants. That is
the Vedic system, that the people sit in rows
behind their plates and servers pass down the
rows and put a very small portion of each
foodstuff on each plate, unless there is some
objection by a person. Then nothing is given.
Then if anyone wants more, the servers pass
up and down the rows continually and give
more if anyone requests. In this way nothing is
wasted and everyone is satisfied.
• SP letter to Kirtiraja (November 27, 1971)
1. All to be served should be invited to sit
on the floor, and prasadam should be
served by qualified devotees.
2. Those who are serving should be very
clean, peaceful, and satisfied. They should
eat before serving, if necessary. They
should try not to speak while serving.
3. Serve just the right amount so that
nothing is wasted.
4. Seniors should be served first.
Householders should serve the guests.
Old people and children should be served
first.
5. Place salt and lemon on each plate before
those to be served are seated.
6. Always serve water first.
7. Go around serving seconds until everyone
is satisfied. Don't be stingy; don't hold
anything back because you want to take it
later. Prasadam is meant for distribution.
8. Do not touch plates with the serving
spoon. Touching the plate contaminates the
spoon. If a spoon becomes contaminated,
you should wash it.
9. Don't let your fingers touch any of the
preparations, even water. Salt should never
be served by hand, use a spoon.
10. Never touch prasadam with your feet
or step over it.
11. Serve the prasadam from serving
buckets.
12. Don't drag buckets along the floor or
make clanging noises with pot handles or
utensils. Serve quietly.
13. After everyone is finished honoring
prasadam, clean the place immediately.
“As you take foodstuff from a
infected area, you become infected
with some disease, so this is Krishna
infected, prasadam. You take it, and
one day you'll be diseased with
Krishna consciousness.” Fiji 1976
George: If God is in everything, why
shouldn't you taste Him when you eat? I
think that prasadam is a very important
thing. Krishna is God, so He's absolute:
His name, His form, prasadam, it's all Him.
They say the way to a man's heart is
through his stomach, so if you can get to a
man's spirit soul by eating, and it works,
why not do it? There's nothing better than
having been chanting and dancing, or just
sitting and talking philosophy, and then
suddenly the devotees bring out the
prasadam. It's a blessing from Krishna,
and it's spiritually important.
Regarding the attitude for taking
prasadam, if you think it is
something palatable, so let me take
more and more, then that is sense
gratification. But still it is prasadam,
so it will act. Prasadam is
transcendental, but one should not
take too much.
Jayananda
Jayananda's world was
about prasadam. His whole
day and his activities all
revolved around prasadam.
Collecting the bhoga,
preparing the bhoga,
offering bhoga to Srila
Prabhupada, and serving
prasadam to others, and
taking it himself, and then speaking praises of
prasadam – that was the typical day for
Jayananda.
When he wasn't collecting
the materials, or planning
the next festival (of which
the distribution of prasad
was central), or when he
wasn't cooking the offering,
or offering it, or serving or
honoring it, then he was thinking about
prasad, or glorifying prasad or talking
about the Lord's mercy.
He had great faith in the process of
prasadam and its transcendental effect
upon the conditioned souls. This was his
life and soul – to give prasad to others, as
much as possible. In this way, this was his
whole day, this was his whole existence,
and it was all about the transcendental
process of distributing and taking prasad.
A devotee of Krishna does not want any
possessions or fame or followers, he is
satisfied with simple Krishna prasadam
and knowing he is Krishna's servant.
Govardhan
Annukut
Maha Prasadam Ki Jaya