Food and Prasadam FAQ


OFFERING YOUR FOOD
VEGETARIAN DIET
CAN I EAT THESE FOODS?


OFFERING YOUR FOOD


I want to start offering my food to Kṛṣṇa. What is the philosophical significance and what are the basic practices?

It is very nice that you want to offer your food to the Lord and take prasādam. Kṛṣṇa will certainly give you benediction. You see, we can have a direct personal relationship with God through our service. This is the Esoteric Teaching.



If you engage the tongue by chanting and taking prasādam, this is the secret key to all perfection.

We only offer pure vegetarian food and we offer the final preparation, not the ingredients. Generally we set aside one very nice plate for the Lord. We use nice stainless steel containers and implements. These dishes, utensils, and containers should only be used for Krsna.

When we cook we do not taste the food. Then we offer the first serving by placing His plate before the pictures of guru and Krsna, bowing down, and reciting the mantras.  After giving them a few minutes to eat, then we distribute the maha-prasadam to everyone or merge it back into the cooking pots, and serve everyone.

Krsna eats by glancing over the food, so there is no need for Him to take a long time. If one is doing an elaborate ceremonial meal, with big Deities of Radha-Krsna, then perhaps it would make sense to wait ten minutes. But for home worship one need only wait a few minutes. Informal home worship is different—simpler and more intimate—than formal temple worship.

The etiquette is that when offering prayers, one offers obeisances to his own guru, and then to the param-guru or guru's guru in the disciplic line. Especially Śrīla Prabhupāda is such a great figure in the Gauḍīya sampradāya, we should always keep him very prominently in the foreground. When offering full formal Maṅgalācaraṇam, we do chant the pranāma-mantras to many gurus in the lineage; but when time is of the essence, we only do one or two.

Here are the mantras:


Guru-praṇati




Śrīla Prabhupāda Praṇati




Śrī Paṇca-tattva Mahā-mantra




Dvadasākṣara-mantra




I am having trouble pronouncing the mantras. Should I just go hungry until I've learned them?

The pronunciation for the prayers can be found here. Anyway, it's the intention that counts and not the particular words, so the prayer may be in any language.



If I have leftovers should I offer the remnants the next day?

Once the food is offered, then it cannot be offered again. So if your intention is to offer all the food in the pot, then just heat up the remnants the next day. Also, it is best if you can get a separate refrigerator so that you do not have to keep it in the same place as nonvegetarian food.



My parents eat meat. Is it ok to share prasadam with them?

There are no rules or restrictions on the distribution of the Lord's mercy. Everyone can take maha-prasadam and it is always spiritually beneficial.



Are we thanking God for providing food?

The important thing is that we're not just thanking Krsna, but first we are offering the food for His enjoyment. It's a different concept from Christian Grace, where they are engaging God as supplier for their sense gratification. We are giving the food and Krsna is enjoying it, then we are taking the remnants.



Are there other prayers I can use along with the mantras already given?


If you are following the principles (chanting the Holy Name regularly every day and following four regulative principles: pure vegetarian diet and refraining from intoxication, gambling and illicit sex) then you may also chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra while offering your food:



Also, here are the first two verses of the prasadam prayer by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura with the original translation by Srila Prabhupada:

Prasāda-sevāya

From Gītāvalī
by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura


This is usually chanted before taking the offered prasadam. The recitation of this prayer by Uddhava can be heard at the end of the videos in our "Cooking with Mother Rima" series.

Srila Prabhupada gave the first two verses of  Prasāda-sevāya by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. He did not teach us to recite the whole thing though. Prabhupada wanted us to honor prasadam, not spend all day reciting prayers! We have to find a balance between using ritual to create a sacred atmosphere and inhibiting the human spirit and initiative by too much ritual. Besides, you never want to find yourself between a bunch of hungry devotees and their prasadam!



Why is Prasādam spiritual?

Prasādam is spiritual because it is energy in relation to Kṛṣṇa. It is eternal and unchanging. For example, when pilgrims visit Jagannāth Purī, they always bring back some of Lord Jagannāth's amazing prasādam. This spiritual food is made from grains and other ingredients grown on the temple's own land, and the taste is out of this world. It is dried and lasts indefinitely. The ingredients such as ghee, honey and spices are natural preservatives.





Why is Prasadam antiseptic?

Prasādam is antiseptic becaue it protects us from the karmic reactions of killing for food. Even if we don't eat animals, we still have to kill the plants and this creates karma.







VEGETARIAN DIET


So we can't eat meat?

Our school, the Esoteric Teaching, follows the Vedic spiritual tradition, which is based on the Absolute Truths revealed in the ancient Vedic literatures. Animal killing is prohibited in the Vedas except for certain sacrifices, in which the performer basically makes a deal with the animal granting it human life in the next birth, in exchange for being able to kill him in a similar sacrifice in the future...

In other words, killing animals, even in a religious context, is a really bad idea. One visit to a commercial slaughterhouse or animal farm is enough to convince all but the most hardhearted people that it is a horrible business making profit from the suffering of innocent animals. How can we claim to be interested in spiritual life, or approach God when our hands are stained with blood? Whether we do the violence ourselves or hire others to do our dirty work, we are just as guilty. Please watch Earthlings to see the treatment of animals in these commercial slaughterhouses.

Halal and Kosher standards are similar attempts in the Islamic and Jewish scriptures, respectively, to limit and discourage animal killing and meat-eating. All authentic religious teachings attempt to restrict meat eating and other material sense gratification. Animal slaughter and spiritual life are diametrical opposites. Authentic spiritual culture seeks the greatest good for all living entities, but murder of living innocent creatures simply for the satisfaction of our temporary material senses is completely selfish and sinful.

The Vedic culinary tradition is vast and extremely sophisticated. It is based on the combination of grains, legumes and dairy products for complete protein, plus vegetables and spices used judiciously to enhance taste and provide medicinal value. According to Ayurveda, food is medicine, and proper diet based on Ayurvedic diagnosis can prevent metabolic imbalances that lead to chronic disease.

Well-established statistics show that vegetarians are less subject to disease, especially chronic killers like heart problems and cancer. But the real value of vegetarian food is that when offered to God with love and devotion, it is completely free from karma, or sinful reactions that cause continued birth and death in the material world.

Vedic spirituality is transcendental; its aim includes, but is ultimately far beyond the usual religious goals of social regulation, piety, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. Our intention is nothing less than reawakening our dormant eternal, ecstatic love relationship with God, and cessation of the endless round of birth and death in the material world.

In more than 40 years of Vedic studies, I have seen again and again that people who cannot stop eating meat just cannot understand the principles of transcendental philosophy; their brains are too contaminated to comprehend such a subtle ontology and the ecstatic devotional practices based on it. So our first regulative principle is pure vegetarianism, and the regular practice of chanting the Holy Names of God.



Is Halal meat alright?

Very clear instructions are given in the Qu'ran about meat-eating:


Prophet Muhammad's daily food was bread, milk and palm-dates. His death, from a long illness as a result of eating poisoned meat, is very instructive. He often mentioned that Islam means to treat every living entity as oneself. This is similar to the Golden Rule espoused by Jesus. If we understand how cruelly animals are treated in modern slaughterhouses, it is clear to kill animals is a great source of sin. One of the first statements Muhammad made on regaining Mecca was:


In the Qu'ran we find:


We can understand from this that the ideal in all religions is complete nonviolence born of compassion for all beings. But because of our inability to control our material lust, human beings have rationalized so many exceptions to the actual laws of God. There is no need for this. Vegetarian diet is clean, wholesome, healthy and free from all violence and sin. What little karma there may be from harvesting plants is easily neutralized by offering the food to God with love and devotion before eating.



How does meat intefere with our relationship with God?

Meat-eating is not only very sinful and creates terrible bad karma, it also creates an addiction to the adrenaline, fear pheromones and poisons in the blood of the animal at the time it is killed. This creates a society based on fear, and that is exactly what Srila Prabhupada means when he says, "To kill cows means to end human civilization." [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.4.9 Purport]

Kṛṣṇa says,


How can anyone meditate if they are full of fear, whether from their own ignorance or because of killing innocent animals (which amounts to the same thing)? If meditation is impossible, then self-realization is out of reach. If one cannot attain self-realization, then one's human life is wasted. Therefore meat-eating is prohibited for human beings, because real human civilization means to attain complete enlightenment and self-realization.



Does this include eggs?

We are not exactly vegetarians, but we eat the remnants of offerings to Kṛṣṇa.


Kṛṣṇa does not accept offerings of animal flesh, so that automatically cuts out eggs. Who wants to steal chicken babies from their mothers anyway? That's bad karma too, because the chicken is attached to her eggs, fertile or not.

But even if one eats only plant-based foods, there is karma involved. For example, when plowing or clearing land, so many living entities are killed. All kinds of karma is released by offering the results of our work in sacrifice. See Bhagavad-gītā, Chapters 3 & 5.




What are necessities for a healthy diet?

Milk products, grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits and spices. They are the basis of a healthy Vedic diet. Śrīla Prabhupāda once said that each family should have four acres [about 1.5 hectares] of land, and that is sufficient for growing all the necessities of life.


Spices are also used, which according to Ayurveda are medicines. And recently some scientific researchers concluded that turmeric has valuable anti-cancer properties. Well, as usual the Vedas knew it 50 centuries ago. So there is no need for this trial-and-error experimentation; if we just follow the instructions of the Vedas, our material life will be as good as possible and especially our spiritual life will be perfect.




Is there any variety in a vegetarian diet?

Cooking for yourself is a survival skill, especially for a devotee. And if you look around the Internet you can find thousands of vegetarian recipes that can be adapted by leaving out the onions and garlic, and substituting asafoetida and other sattvic spices. Cooking and offering nice prasadam is a very important skill for a devotee. We have several tutorial videos on our youtube site (check back often for new videos):

Babaji's Special Pasta Sauce Recipe

Babaji's Special Polenta Potato Patties

Chickpeas recipe

Potato vegetable

Tamarind Chutney

Kānāi's Salad Dressing

Ekadasi Recipes: Bhaji, Acelga and Lassi

Chapatis

Homemade Yogurt

Homemade Cheese

Ghee


My Godbrother Kūrma dās also has lots of videos of delicious recipes on YouTube and his own site. Check them out. Here are some classic recipes from the good old days of the Hare Krsna movement. Similarly, here is the Krsna food channel where you will find lots of recipes. Manjula's kitchen provides many Indian food recipes which don't use onions, garlic, mushrooms, etc.

If that is not enough for you, you will find several cookbooks in the Vedabase. You can also join the cooking group on our community network to share recipes and tips with other devotees. There is also a cooking section in the Bhakta course, which we highly recommend taking. That should keep you going for a lifetime or two. Enjoy cooking and offering these to Krsna.



Does the quality of our ingredients matter?

Everybody loves nice food, but the real reason we try to use the most first-class, pure organic ingredients is that we want to offer the best quality of food to Kṛṣṇa. For example, if a vegetable is the slightest bit rotten, it's best to throw it out, even if it could be salvaged by cutting. Why? It might be OK from a material point of view, but we want to offer Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's devotees only the finest and best. Similarly, when we purify butter by turning it into ghee, there is a very scientific method to cooking all the water and solids out of it. One has to follow the procedure accurately. Everything in the kitchen has to be kept scrupulously clean and neat, because the pots and other utensils in Kṛṣṇa's kitchen are considered expansions of Lord Balarāma. In traditional temples in India, the kitchen devotees are always the best and most advanced devotees, because their devotional energy goes into the food and purifies everyone.


We should be very careful to be in spiritual consciousness when we cook. not thinking of our own enjoyment but of Kṛṣṇa's enjoyment. Then our cooking and diet will be really spiritual.



Is it ideal to offer simple organic food then?

There are two sides to everything: the idealistic, philosophical side and the practical side. The idealistic side is that any kind of food becomes pure and free from karma if offered to Krsna with love and devotion. But the practical side is that organic food really is better for your health.

Most of the early devotees (including myself) developed digestive trouble after years if not decades of too much white flour and sugar, fried and spicy food. Maybe Krsna can digest it, but we poor humans are inclined toward ill-health.

So it's better in the long run to guard your health. Now I eat a very simple diet: no fried food, lots of fresh green vegetables, whole grains only, herb teas and vitamins. It's all offered to Krsna, but it's good for health too. We have to find the balance between idealistic and practical in everything.







CAN I EAT THESE FOODS?


Is it OK to eat food cooked by others?

It is not recommended. The cook's energy goes right into the food; that's why if you can't eat prasadam cooked by a pure devotee, then it's better to cook for yourself. Actually it's a brahminical principle to cook your own food; healthier too. Plus you don't get mixed up in others' energy and consciousness.

According to the subtle laws of nature, the cook acts upon the food not only physically but mentally as well. Food thus becomes an agent for subtle influences on your consciousness. The principle is the same as that at work with a painting: a painting is not simply a collection of strokes on a canvas but an expression of the artist’s state of mind, which affects the viewer. So if you eat food cooked by nondevotees—employees working in a factory, for example—then you’re sure to absorb a dose of materialism and karma.



Are there any foods we can't offer to the Deity?

In pancaratra Pradipa, Chapter 1 Verse 13:




I can understand why we don't eat meat, but why not onions and garlic? They are just plants.

The other aspect of food is the mode in which it is in. Food, like everything else, can be categorized in the three modes of material nature - goodness, passion and ignorance - depending on the effect they have on our psycho-spiritual body. These categories are explained in detail in the science of Ayurveda. Onions and garlic are in the mode of ignorance. They produce an offensive body and breath odor, and stimulate lust. They cannot be offered to Krsna. You will be surprised at how pure your consciousness will become if you quit them. The fact that certain kinds of foods have a certain effect upon the states of our consciousness is not difficult to understand. We only offer Krsna pure food that is in the mode of goodness.




So, try giving a rose to a smoking man to smell, its gonna be very hard for him because of his polluted senses, the same thing with Krsna Conciousness, one has to live in purity to be able to appreciate purity. Onions and Garlic, are in the mode of ignorance, so they will just keep you away from the mode of goodness which is very important to be able to go beyond the modes.



Why not mushrooms?

The reason that we Vaiṣṇavas don't eat fungi is that there is so much variation in their chemistry that you never know whether you are getting food or poison.



Can we use chilis?

Most chilis are in the mode of passion, but they can help digestion if used in moderate amounts. Cayenne is in the mode of goodness; it is far less acidic than most other chilis. In fact it is an important heart and pain-relieving medicine. I take it every day as a condiment.



What about Fenugreek?

Yes, Fenugreek seeds are alright to use as a spice. Here are some examples of Sattvic foods and also some spices often used in cooking prasadam. There are also many cookbooks in the Vedabase which provide information on the various ingredients used in cooking for Krsna.



I read that modern dairy farming is unethical. Should I just give up milk and become a vegan?

Cow's milk is very important for developing transcendental knowledge:


As to the argument of the vegans that the cruelty to cows in the modern dairy farms makes it ethically unsupportable to drink milk, that is not very intelligent. They do not understand that by offering our food for Kṛṣṇa's pleasure, all the karma is removed:


So while the dairy farmers are certainly responsible for their cruelty to the animals, the devotees are released from this karma by offering their milk products for Kṛṣṇa's pleasure. Better to use this most wonderful food for developing good intelligence.

You are right, industrial farming in general is a brutally cruel and heartless business, all based on the impersonal atheistic philosophy that there is no soul in living beings, and animals are just matter. This is exactly why we offer all our food to God before eating: we know there are unavoidable sinful activities in the handling, processing and distribution of all food and farm products, especially these days. So to nullify the karma, we offer it in sacrifice before partaking.


This is the real point. Everything we do in this material world for our own selfish benefit becomes a cause that generates unintended consequences, or karma. This accumulated karma, both good and bad, becomes the cause of our continued rebirth in this world. Even good karma is binding, because it forces us to take another body to receive its result.

The secret to spiritual liberation is karma-yoga, where one links all activities with God by performing them in His service. In other words, we have to change the motivation for our activities from selfish material lust to love of God. This spiritual art requires very expert personalized guidance from a self-realized soul who has mastered the practice. In Krsna's opinion:


In other words, merely externally stopping sinful activities like eating animal food cannot uproot the underlying cause of karmic bondage, because the selfish motivation—desire for material sense enjoyment—still persists. Karma-yoga means that through devotion we change the object of our desire from our own material enjoyment to the spiritual service of the Lord.

Then by this process of devotional service, we can even perform the exact same activities—for example in Arjuna's case, fighting in the Battle of Kuruksetra, or in our case, eating dairy products—but since we do them for the benefit of the Lord, following the Vedic religious principles in a mood of surrender and sacrifice, we are released from the karmic consequences by the power of divine grace. This is the esoteric mystery of liberation from material existence through devotional service. You can read more about karma-yoga in Bhagavad-gita Chapter 3.



Is it OK to drink soy-milk?

The problem with soybeans is that they are almost all genetically modified, and also heavily sprayed with pesticides and herbicides (weed killer). Industrial mono-cropping farming practices lead to so many problems. Instead of soybeans, devotees should eat small legumes like lentils and dahl (available at any Indian grocery) that are more tasty and nutritious; soybeans are actually animal food.

Cow's milk is so much better than soy milk. Prabhupada explained that the fats in cow's milk and ghee are perfect for nourishing the finer tissues of the brain:


Cow's milk is so important and valuable because it helps develop our spiritual intelligence.




I am lactose-intolerant. What are my options?

If you're lactose-intolerant that's too bad; you will miss many nice dairy recipes. I can't imagine life without yogurt. The question is, how is the soy drink made? If it is fermented, then it is not offerable.

The main reason we don't offer soy is because it is usually GMO and heavily sprayed. Plus the texture is too rough for human digestion. Tofu uses bacteria to partially digest the beans, making the texture nicer, but ferments it in the process. At first Prabhupada wouldn't let us offer corn, because corn is low-class, only used for animal food in India. But when he saw nice first-class corn, he accepted it. So I guess if you have nice quality organic soy it would be OK. As far as possible we want to offer first-class food to Krsna though.

Why not try rice milk as an alternative? You can make your own by cooking nice basmati rice, mixing it with water and blending it, then put it through a filter like a piece of cloth. After all, one must have one's muesli...



Can we eat Tofu as a replacement for meat?

Tofu is fermented, so like vinegar, it is unofferable. If you want a complete protein combine lentils with rice or other grains, or go to the Indian grocery and get some nice dahl.




Yogurt also goes through a form of fermentation process. Why is this OK but Tofu is not?

The quality of the bacteria in yogurt is goodness, while the bacteria used to culture soybeans is in passion and ignorance. Little-known fact: it originally comes from human fecal matter.

For the same reasons, Srila Prabhupada also told us not to offer vinegar or sauerkraut. Generally we also avoid commercial bread made with yeast.



Is it OK to eat any brand of butter?

Adulterated butter and ghee have been a problem in India for many years. Please see this article for more information on adulterated butter. One way to test butter is make ghee from it; if it is adulterated with other animal fats, it will not make ghee in the normal way.



I read somewhere that baby carrots can also be impure. Is this true?

The following information was provided by a farmer who grows and packages carrots for IGA, Metro, Loblaws, etc:



Can we drink tea or coffee?

Srila Prabhupada prohibited coffee and tea. He specifically meant the caffeine, which causes already passionate Westerners to
become even more passionate, mental and crazy. Herb teas like Yogi Tea and so many others are fine. Black tea not only has caffeine, it
is fermented and full of mold. Yuck!



Anything else to avoid?

We should always be careful when buying food to offer to Krsna. In the first part of this conversation we discuss the deceptions in the ingredient labeling on food products. For example, the ingredient (cochineal) or cutchenele or cochineel which is a brilliant scarlet dye-stuff made from the dried bodies of the insect Coccus cacti, so named because it is found on several species of cactus.

Carmine also called Crimson Lake, Cochineal, Natural Red 4, C.I. 75470, or E120, is a pigment of a bright red color obtained from the carminic acid produced by some scale insects such as the cochineal and the polish cochineal, and is used as a general term for a particularly deep red color. Carmine is used in the manufacture of artificial flowers, paints, rouge, yogurt, cosmetics, food additives, and crimson ink.

So anything with this in is not vegetarian.



I only have access to GMO food. What can I do?

There are always some sinful activities involved in the production of food. In this material world there is no such thing as pure goodness; even in matters of faith, goodness is always mixed with passion and ignorance.


This is exactly why we offer our food to Kṛṣṇa before eating, so that it become purified of the modes of passion and ignorance acquired during its production and sale. We are not in control of the food production process; of course it is best if everything is organic and natural. But even if not, turning food into prasādam is purifying.


So just be confident that following the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness gives all protection from Māyā.



If I had nothing available except meat would Krsna accept it?

That question is sophistry, it is totally synthetic and on the mental platform. To have nothing available but meat is impossible, because cows and other animals that supply meat live on grass, and so even if nothing else is available, at least you will have grass. If you chop it up and boil it, it makes a very nice soup that contains all nutrients.

Kṛṣṇa only accepts food in the mode of goodness. The rascal mind always wants to speculate some condition in which it is OK to break the regulative principles, but they are as much a part of the Absolute Truth as anything else in the Esoteric Teaching.

Spiritual life has nothing to do with the material body. The actual basis of how everything works is consciousness. To have nothing but meat available means that you would have made a large number of really, really bad choices, and you would be so far away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness that you never think to offer your food anyway.




As i was reading Caitanya Caritamrta, i found this paragraph:


By logic, i would understand, too much protein would mode of passion, or ignorance, but still vegetarian, but as Prabhupada points out, its not even that, its non vegetarian. Why is that? That would include avocados, high in protein, for example?


Well, we had urad and masur dahl in the temples all the time. Caturmasya is a time of extra austerity, so these dahls are prohibited in the third and fourth month, I think. It comes down to moderation and desire. If one is moderate in eating, sleeping, etc. according to the needs of his body and fully engaged in sadhana and devotional service, then there is no harm in eating anything that is pure. Of course too much of anything, even milk, can agaitate the senses.

Tell you the truth, I never paid too much attention to all these rules. People with Western background are used to rich, high-protein foods; in fact, when we become vegetarian we easily get protein deficiency. IMHO that is more of a danger than too much protein. I think this is more of an issue for people with Indian bodies or who are raised as vegetarians.



How do different foods affect our emotional health, mental health, etc?

The Vedic literature does not comment too much on things like food, emotional health, etc. I think the Vedas assume that we are intelligent and have a good practical grasp of the basics of life, and go on from there to address the issues of eternal spiritual existence and activities. After all, material activities are temporary but spiritual advancement is eternal. So let me comment based on my experience.

Neurosis or acute emotional illness, and the self-destructive behaviors it engenders, are historically recent phenomena. Previous to the Kali-yuga, everyone was spiritually aware and had some knowledge of their essentially spiritual nature. The objectification of human beings began in the Kali-yuga, and this treating spiritual beings as material objects is the root cause of the severe emotional dysfunction we see all around us.

We know since Korzybski's research into General Semantics (which I encourage all my students to read) that semantic reactions are physically programmed into the body. So the effects of living with a crippling, soul-denying materialistic ontology are that one develops negative emotional semantic imprinting affecting every area of life. As I have said here so often, we have accumulated so many materialistic samskaras (impressions) that we must engage in many, many acts of spiritual quality to counteract them and restore our consciousness to its natural spiritual blissful state.

Exactly how this patterning works, whether with chemicals or some more subtle mechanism, is a detail and does not really concern us. What we do know is that the sense of identity derived from our ontology influences how we interpret everything that we experience. If we think that we are just a material body, our consciousness, feelings and responses will be completely different than if we are convinced that we are a spirit soul and that the material body is just a temporary covering on our real self. So this issue is best addressed as a software or mental issue, rather than on the hardware or bodily platform.

This is why, for example, in traditional Vedic temples a very spiritually advanced person is given the job of cooking for the community. We tend to think of a cook as a low-level servant, but actually the cook is very important because his consciousness and energy permeate the food that everyone eats. If we want our community to be healthy, happy and spiritually advanced, then we should see that the person who cooks is himself in a good spiritual state.

Then our own attitude toward the food we eat is important. If we prepare our food as an offering of love to God, and accept it as sacred remnants of God's mercy, then we will have a very positive, loving and spiritual attitude toward the whole process of eating. This will manifest as a better attitude, better emotional and physical health. Because we love Him, we also want to offer Krsna the best quality food, meaning organic, fresh and locally grown as far as possible. Canned and processed food full of preservatives is in the mode of ignorance. The food we eat and how we prepare it, as well as our attitudes toward the whole process will certainly have an effect on our consciousness and health.

But ultimately consciousness is independent of the material body and senses. The spirit soul is the cause of the material body, because it is by our decision to be independent of Krsna that we come to this world and take a material body. Actually, of course, we are never really independent from Krsna; that so-called independence is the root of the illusion of this temporary world. But when our relationship with Krsna is healthy, then our body can more easily be healthy.

I remember being amazed so many times by Srila Prabhupada's energy, determination and resilience, even at such an advanced age. He could work harder than any of the young men in his organization, and routinely wore out his personal servants because they could not keep up with him. Prabhupada's intelligence was extremely sharp and he seemed to know everything about everyone around him. Especially, he knew how to satisfy Krsna in every circumstance, wisdom that only comes with experience. His extraordinary strength came from his advanced spiritual realization and his unbreakable determination to serve Krsna in every moment.

Personally, at the time Srila Prabhupada was present I was still in material consciousness, and had so many negative emotions and attitudes. As a result my body was very lethargic and often sick. It took many years to purify my body from this material contamination. Now I look back on it and wonder how I could stand to be so contaminated. But everyone who is raised in material so-called civilization has a large stock of negative impressions. These must be purified to realize any spiritual progress. One of the most powerful purifying processes we have, besides the Holy Name, is prasadam.

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