Prasada Queries

[Guest guest]

I'm preparing an essay on the Cooking, Distributing and Honoring of Krsna

Prasada and have some queries to place before the learned devotees, as

follow.

 

 

1) "Today was Ekadasi, but we committed the grievous error of eating grains.

Srila Prabhupada ordered to observe Ekadasi tomorrow and to go on preparing

grains today." TKG's Diary, May 13

 

Does this mean that if devotees inadvertantly take grains on Ekadasi, that

they should continue to eat grains throughout the rest of the day?

Compare with the following.

 

"The devotees inadvertently broke the Ekadasi vow because the cook

accidentally put peas in the vegetable preparations. Srila Prabhupada told

us we were all nonsense. He angrily rebuked us, "Now you have to fast for

three days!" This shocked everyone. "Yes, that is the procedure," he

confirmed. Seeing the stunned look on our faces he relented, but said that

we should observe Ekadasi for the rest of the day and then again tomorrow on

Dvadasi." Trans. Diary, 1.258

 

2) Did Srila Prabhupada call Krsna consciousness "the kitchen religion?" ANy

reference to this?

 

3) "While the bhoga is being offered, the pots in the kitchen containing the

bulk of the cooked items may be left open, so that Krsna can come and take

more as He likes. This is a traditional practice in some temples in India."

Which temples?

 

4) "Srila Prabhupada said that every gentleman begins his meal with

something bitter and ends it with something sweet." Reference?

 

5) Sometimes it is recommended that cooks maintain silence lest they

inadvertantly spit in the prparations. Yet sometimes it is recommended that

they chant the holy names constantly while cooking. What, if anything, did

Srila Prabhupada say about this? What was his personal practice when

cooking? To chant, speak very littl, or what?

 

6) Formerly it was quite widespread in ISKCON that one should offer water

before drinking by saying "Sri Vishnu, Sri Vishnu, Sri Vishnu." (Some

devotees extended this to "offer" anything they had bought with a casual,

"Sri Vishnu, Sri Vishnu, Sri Vishnu.") Jayapataka Maharaja recommended this

in situations where one has to take food not offered to Deities. Where did

this "Sri Vishnu" practice come from? Is there any sastric reference

(doubtful)? Did Srila Prabhupada say to do so?

 

7) According to the Vedic culture that I've seen in practice for years,

eating utensils of glass or china, once used, should be thrown away, as they

cannot be purified. Yet according to Pancaratra Pradipa (4.11: Purification

of Articles), earthernware, if glazed, can be purified by water. What is the

sastric reference for this?

 

8) Once when devotees suggested to reheat Srila Prabhupada's prasada that

had gone cold, he said there was no need. Reference? (Not the story of

Srutakirti Prabhu reheating maha prasada in Juhu.)

 

9) Is there an intrinsic difference between the Deity's mahaprasada (that

which is placed before the Lord on His plate) and "regular" prasada?

Sometimes devotees distribute samples of the preparations that were on the

Deity's plate, even though the other prasada is the same (but was in the

pots).

 

10) Srila Prabhupada said, "If you work like a horse, you can eat like a

horse." Reference?

 

11) "Meat, fish, eggs, wine, onions and garlic are foods in the lower modes

of nature, and are forbidden to Vaisnavas. Other items that are described

as untouchable in the sastra are as follows: intoxicants, milk from animals

other than the cow, milk from a cow without a calf, milk taken from a cow

during the ten day period after bearing a calf, milk from a cow that has

been mated, milk mixed with buttermilk, milk in a copper vessel, milk mixed

with salt, red spinach, kalambi sak, burned rice, white eggplant, radish,

coconut water in a bell metal vessel, honey and yoghurt in a copper vessel,

ucchista (someone's remnants) mixed with ghee; sesame, cornmeal, or yogurt

at night; barley during the day, burned preparations, and ones own

half-eaten fruit or sweets (saved to be eaten later)." Which sastra(s) is

this stated in? Note the reference to "a cow that has been mated".

Presumably this refers to a milch cow that has been mated.

 

12) In one letter Srila Prabhupada states that doubly boiled cannot be used

for Krishna prasada, but in another letter states that the rice known in

Bengal as sidha is acceptable. But is there any difference between sidha and

doubly boiled rice? I always understood them to be the same. If so, what is

the resolution of this apparent contradiction?

 

REFS

 

Brown rice generally is doubly boiled; therefore it cannot be used for

Krishna prasada. Unpolished rice which looks like brown can be used.

Generally in America the brown rice is doubly boiled therefore unfit. We do

not mind polished or unpolished but doubly boiled mustn't be used. Doubly

boiled rice is considered impure. Sun baked rice is all right. Letter to:

Mahapurusa, 17 October, 1967

 

Regarding the preparation of rice by steaming and then drying, we can offer

such rice even it is twice-cooked. Gaudiya Math offers-even during the

presence of Prabhupada it was done-so there is no wrong. It is called sidha.

I never took sidha except in Gaudiya Math. Letter to: Jayapataka, 22

October, 1972

 

 

13) In Mayapura Srila Prabhupada allowed purchased puffed rice to be offered

and distributed to devotees. Yet in general he was adamant that devotees not

eat karmi grain foods, such as when he told devotees in Germany not to eat

karmi bread. Why, then, is puffed rice acceptable, and if so then why not

popcorn or various other items? What about karmi pickles, jam etc.?

 

14) Any foodstuff when it is paid for, it becomes purified. There is a verse

in Vedic literature, dravya mulyena suddhati. The source of receipt of the

thing may be not very good, but if one pays for it, it becomes purified. So

vegetable diet, when it is paid for, you can offer it in your mind to

Krishna and take it. This dravya means vegetables, etc. And this dravya

mulyena suddhati is only in special cases like this. It is not to be done

ordinarily, or unless in special circumstance. We should prepare our own

foodstuff and offer as much as possible, of course. Letter to: Brahmananda

-- Seattle 6 October, 1968

 

What is the nature of the purification mentioned above? It is not full

purification, otherwise Srila Prabhupada would not write, "only in special

cases like this. It is not to be done ordinarily..." Jayapataka Maharaja

suggested this means that transfer of karma from the cook to the eater does

not take place, but that transfer of contaminated consciousness does. Does

anyone have further insight into this?

 

15) Once (so we are told) some devotees were reticent about accepting a

lunch offer, but Srila Prabhupada said, "how they will be uplifted if we

don't allow them to cook?" reference?

 

16) A footnote in PP states: "Salty preparations like soup which include

milk are allowed."

 

On what authority is this stated? I've always heard that ayurveda forbids

salt with milk unless the milk is fermented. There are no milky soups in

Indian cuisine. An ayurvedic doctor told me that salt with even curdled milk

is poisonous. Salty panir preps are uncommon in Indian cuisine. Only in

Punjab do they have palaka-panir.