How can we explain to newcomers the difference between prasad and ordinary food?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Panchakantapuram, food as prasad is a very important part of devotional culture, but when you offer food to newcomers, they don’t see any difference between the food that is offered here in the devotee community or in temples, or food that is offered at other places in homes or hotels, so how do we explain to them that food is a part of devotional culture, answer, the devotional culture is inclusive, the whole idea of bhakti is to engage the things of this world in Krishna’s service, so an important aspect of this world is also food, which is also engaged in Krishna’s service, now just as when new people come to the temple, it’s not that they will immediately feel some difference between the deity and some other images which they may have seen outside, so they may not be able to perceive the difference immediately, that’s why there are two other aspects to it, there is education and there is experience, so it’s not that, we can say this is prasad, this is food that is sanctified by offering to Krishna, but beyond that we don’t have to emphasize, we don’t have to speak too much the glories of prasad to those people, just like the ninth offense is to speak the glories of the holy name to faceless people, similarly we don’t have to speak too many glories of prasad to new people, generally the focus should be on offering them basic philosophical education and giving them a good devotional experience, so there are kirtans, there is cordial greetings with devotees, a welcoming disposition for those who come to temple, all this gives them a positive experience, now if we do that then gradually they will start wanting to know more about the components of this experience and then we can tell them about the philosophy of prasad and how by offering to Krishna, poor becomes spiritualized, even when to the external it may appear material, so sometimes if you unduly emphasize that prasad is transcendental then that may unnecessarily raise questions which people do not have the capacity of understanding whose answers they don’t have the capacity to understand at that level, so if people start feeling that oh there is such opulent food here and how is it spiritual, if they have an objection about that then you may have to address that objection, so then how this whole world is ultimately belonging to God and everything in this world is given by God, its perfection is that there is a cycle, water from the ocean is raised up by the clouds and through the clouds it comes down and it returns back to the ocean, so there is cyclic nature and cyclicism is there within all of existence also, so everything comes with God and spiritually it doesn’t mean that we reject the things which are given by God but we connect them with Krishna, we connect them with Krishna, that’s what we are doing, we are offering this food to Krishna and sharing this with all of Krishna’s children and when we have opulent foods which are served, the idea is that Krishna should be offered the best of everything, whatever nature is producing, for what is it nature producing, it is ultimately for the glorification of God, for the service of God, so using the best that can be made available to nature, for the service of God, that is a part of devotional culture and beyond that actually if the whole food and everything is served in a devotional environment, then the food enhances the sweetness of devotional environment, George Harrison says in his introductory interview, when you talk about Krishna, it is so satisfying, it is so enlivening, so illuminating and then when you feel hungry you get food and the food is also Krishna, so over a period of time you realise how Krishna is all pervading and how Krishna’s mercy comes in various ways, so two aspects to this, the education, initially when people come we just focus on giving them a holistic, wholesome, pleasing devotional experience and Prasad is a component of that experience and regarding talking about the glories of specific things, just as we don’t talk too much about the deities initially, we don’t talk too much about things about which people are naturally likely to have questions, we don’t have to over glorify those things and in the natural course of education people will learn and then they will move forward, now if you want to give some introductory examples of transformation or transmutation, we give you examples like how externally paper remains the same but when a paper goes to a currency notepad and comes out, the paper’s value is far more than what would be any other paper piece value, what has happened? There is a process of transformation that has happened by which its value has become enormously enhanced, it has now become a currency note, so this sort of transformation if it can increase of value, if it can happen in material things, why cannot happen in relationship with Krishna, so the food now externally appear to be the same, just as you can have a currency note coming from the currency note place and you can have a thousand rupee note which is a part of a game of business with some children are playing, externally they may look entirely identical but there is a whole world of difference between the two in terms of their value and utility, so same applies to Krishna Prasad also as compared to ordinary food, so the important point is that these sort of examples if we give then basic understanding comes up and if there are further questions then we can encourage people to delve deeper into the philosophy and then the understanding will come out, so the most important thing is that we need to focus on offering newcomers a wholesome devotional experience and not highlight things which will raise unnecessary questions, so if somebody says just by taking one Prasad, one nozzle of Prasad, you know sins of many lifetimes are going to be destroyed, everyone who takes Prasad they are going to get a human form of life, these sort of things you don’t have to speak, if you have to speak at all, this is nutritious food that is offered to Krishna and it’s cooked in very hygienic conditions and we just talk about things which they can appreciate, so the whole process of introducing Krishna consciousness involves introducing it progressively and presenting aspects which are intelligible and relatable for people, when you present it like that then Prasad becomes a very valuable and eventually relishable part of the devotional culture.