Devotee prasadam being offered to Sri Sri Radha Rasbihari

[Guest guest]

HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami wrote:

 

> "The standard that Srila Prabhupada established and that was followed during

> his manifest presence was that everything temple devotees ate was first

> offered to the Deities. Since then, it has become a norm in many temples

> that food meant principally for feeding temple devotees is not offered to

> the Deities, and in many cases is cooked by non-initiated devotees, or even

> those whose chanting of sixteen rounds and following of the regulative

> principles is doubtful."

 

Here in ISKCON Juhu now by the great mercy of Sri Sri Radha Rasbihari & the

determined effort of the temple mangement, all the karmi cooks have been

removed from the devotee kitchen for the past one month. All the resident

devotees in the temple including the temple managers themselves have been

divided into 7 groups of around 8 to 9 devotees each for cooking the 9.00 am

breakfast and the 1.00 pm lunch. There is one common head cook who is a

brahmana devotee. The bhoga is thus offered to the Deities.

 

I find the following striking benefits & advantages of eating prasadam cooked

by devotees:

 

(1) The devotees get to eat the prasadam cooked by devotees, offered to the

Deities and also

served by devotees.

 

(2) There is an increase in the quality of the interpersonal relationships

between devotees among the cooking group of devotees, devotees who eat and all

the devotees in general. It is bringing the devotees together.

 

(3) The devotees see the temple managers themselves take part in the apparently

menial service like cooking etc., so their respect towards them has increased.

Apart from that cooking is good chance to cultivate humility especially for

managers.

 

(4) We get a new menu everyday like South Indian, North Indian, Sindhi,

Gujarati, Punjabi & Russian on Sundays. It's mouth watering right. Once has to

be here to experience the taste. There is a healthy competition among the

groups. Ofcourse the competition is within the budget allocated for breakfast &

lunch.

 

(5) The prasadam menu is being researched to provide the devotees with the most

nutritious tridoshic diet. Like for eg. sunflower oil is being used which is

tridoshic.

 

(6) Due to the morning breakfast prasadam, all the cooks can complete their 16

rounds before going to the kitchen.

 

(7) Earlier karmi cooks were cooking and would very negligently leaving worms &

insects in the subji & cut it with rusted knives & use rusted pots. Now the

devotees cut the subji with utmost care, use all clean things because they know

that they are cooking for the Lord and His devotees.

 

(8) To maintain the quality of the devotee prasadam, it was decided to cut down

on the quantity and thus cook only for the resident devotees. The life members

& guests eat prasadam at a different place which is also cooked by a devotee

helped by karmis in cutting etc.

 

(9) The tiffin system which led to a lot of wastage of prasadam was stopped,

and it was made mandatory for the devotees to sit and have prasadam with the

other devotees. This system is being followed by the managers themselves. This

is what is making it successful.

 

(10) The consciousness of all the devotees including the brahmacaries & new

bhaktas has received a spiritual boost and there are more smiles & service

attitudes than ever before. (This is my personal observation.) I am sure this

will have a great impact on the long run. More devotees will join, new devotees

will mature into steady devotees and old devotees will get more & more taste in

chanting, reading, preaching etc.

 

(11) Devotees like me who were on a hunger fast for around 6 years have got

back their life by being able to eat sumptous prasadam with the devotees.

 

Since ISKCON Juhu is Prabhupada's office & many times temples in India tend to

follow what ISKCON Juhu does, my humble & sincere desire is all the temples in

India take up this very important change in their cooking program for the

devotees and keep karmis away from the devotee kitchen once & for all. ISKCON

Juhu is thus moving a significant step furthur of fulfilling Prabhupada's dream

of being 'heaven on earth'.

 

Vaisnava dasabhas,

Nayana-ranjana das