Posted by on Dec 21, 2013 in SPIRITUAL ASPECT OF EATING | 0 comments

And that removes all the karma. There is no karma now. Can you see the difference? You cannot see the difference, it looks the same, cabbage and cabbage. What is the difference here? But it is karmically free now.

And also you will now find it becomes spiritually purified. Now it is full of spiritual potency. You eat that and not only there is no karma but you get spiritually benefited. You make spiritual progress.

So here in our offering we have chanted the mantras – purifying, we thought of God – purifying, we have offered the food – purifying, we eat the food – purifying. So just in this simple act of eating you have been purified in four different ways. You make spiritual progress very rapidly, simply by doing this.

And as I’ve mentioned, I think, the other night, now that food is spiritual food. You can give that to somebody else, and they get purified also. And maybe here is a person, husband or wife, children, friends, somebody you do not know, it does not matter. And they are not interested in any of this stuff. They do not believe there is God, they are atheists, whatever, spiritual life to them is wrong. So you know you cannot go and say, “Oh, you should chant these mantras. Do you know you are spirit soul?” spirital-foodsYou cannot do that, they are going to say, “You are crazy! Get out of here!”

So you do not do that. You go to them and say, “Hi, how are you? Would you like a cookie? How about an apple? Oh, I just grew this in the garden, here, have some”. Like this. And they say, “Sure, thank you”.

And now you are helping them spiritually. You are their spiritual friend now. And if they are an enemy, you are their spiritual friend also. See, it is the way to reach those that cannot be reached otherwise.

And even the lower forms, the animals, they cannot know about or do any of these things. So, here is a dog, you give him something to eat. He eats, and now he makes spiritual progress. He can even take a human birth in his next life. You can help so many other people. Here is a tree, you put some of the water that you offered around the tree.

Now, along the way you are developing a different vision of the life of the world. You are seeing spirit souls, “Wow, here is a spirit soul in a dog body. I want to help him and give him some Prasadam”. It is called Prasadam. Food that is offered to God is called Prasadam. “Prasadam” means mercy. This becomes now the Lord’s mercy.

So you give Prasadam to the dog or the pigeon, or whoever. And you start feeling good about that. Completely, again, different consciousness. And all the while you are reminded we are not our bodies, we are spirit souls. So it is something that everybody can do.altar

If you want to take the offering a little further, you can have a picture of Krishna, the Supreme Lord; there are many, many wonderful pictures of Him. You can have a little picture, offer in this way. You can make a little altar in your home if you like. Make it nice, have flowers there, maybe a candle or two, etc., you can do it as you so desire, offer a little incense if you like. It is a very personal thing. Like everybody trying to develop a relationship, when another person may do it in a little different way.

And, of course, in big temples it becomes very elaborate. If you are in a situation when obviously you cannot do anything very elaborate or even verbally, you can just in your mind offer it. You just take the apple or whatever it is, and just in your mind offer it like this, “Please, accept this, Gopala Govinda Rama Madana-Mohana”. And it is offered as well.

So it is very practical. Nobody can say, “Oh, I cannot do this”. You can do it. And in this way, the relationship develops, you make spiritual progress; it is so easy to help other people, you start developing a more compassionate attitude for others. Your life gets better, much better.

And you reach a point where you would not want to eat any food that is not offered. You reach a point when you can almost feel that it is not offered. Many people come to us, and sometimes we have a feast and people say, “Oh, I do not know what it is but this food tastes especially good!” “Yes, good, I am glad you like it”. So, it is a part of our life that is very valuable.cow

And one more added benefit for others. Let’s say, you pick a flower off a tree and offer it to God. That tree benefits, in other words, the person in the tree body benefits from you offering the flower. A cow gives milk but the cow cannot offer the milk, the cow does not know about any of these things. But you take that milk and you offer it. And the cow makes spiritual progress, the cow gets benefit.

So every way you look at it, it is beneficial for everybody concerned. So, what is it? It is Krishna’s mercy. He arranges so many ways we can be spiritually benefited in simple ways of life. So we hope you will consider some of these things.

There was one girl in Ukraine. Her grandma lives in a village, and she visited her every summer. She printed up little cards, which were very nicely done and explained basically these ideas. And she went around to different people in the village. She sees people working in the garden, she goes out and just gives them one, “Oh, take this”. And many people thanked her for that, “Thank you”. It is a very nice thing to do.

Our world is so hard, so filled with disrespect, and it does not feel good: no friendship, no comradeship, everybody living for their self. That does not feel good because it is not the nature of our heart. There is hardness that we do not really like.

So when you start doing these things, it starts feeling different, and others can feel it as well. And that is what the world needs – more involvement with the Supreme Lord. This is what we are missing. And this is not some formal thing, this is a very personal thing. So, again, you can incorporate some of these ideas into your life also.

So, now I thank the girls who are going to give you the demonstration. They want to show you how they prepare a certain dish, or dishes, I’m not sure. And then after all of that, because I am sure this has made you very hungry, you can actually experience the taste. All right, thank you very much. HARIBOL.