from a vyasa puja offering, Melbourne 1991
by Kurma dasa (slightly adapted)
(used with permission http://www.kurma.net/)
Dear Srila Prabhupada,
As I enter the kitchen to prepare another offering, I pray, “Let me meditate on your instructions.” My only desire is to have my consciousness purified by the words emanating from your lotus-like mouth:
1. The yogurt has thickened overnight. It was once milk, but in contact with the souring agent it has changed. Similarly, our original love for Krishna has been transformed into lust by the sour mode of passion. Srila Prabhupada—please help me to transform my lust back to love of God.
2. I unpack the box of mangoes; some are ripe, some green. They’re all mangoes, but the ripe ones are better, tastier and more relishable. My daily devotional service is service no doubt, but it’s like the green mango. Srila Prabhupada, please help me ripen and mature my love for Krishna in the association of your devotees.
3. I slice the eggplants one by one. Every so often, I expose a tiny worm that has been living there, illusioned by Mäyä’s covering potency to think that “This life is not so bad.” Srila Prabhupada, please protect me from Mäyä’s spell. Don’t let me forget that this material world is “no place for a gentleman.”
4. I take the dried coconuts, one by one, and shake them to see whether they’re fresh. One produces a rattling sound. It has dried and become detached from the husk. Similarly, although you walked with us, your transcendental body was never attached to this material world. Srila Prabhupada—allow me to attach myself to your feet. Let your divine instructions increase my knowledge in devotional service and help me to detach myself from this dry material world.
5. I am ready to cook. I never tasted anything you cooked, Srila Prabhupada, but I heard it was very nectarean because you were cooking for your dearly beloved Krishna. I feel like an imitation. Srila Prabhupada, please allow me to serve you nicely, with no tinge of personal desire. And then maybe one day I can actually cook for Krishna.
6. I melt the butter for the halavä. It has been expertly prepared from the milk of Krishna’s cows. You have stated, “As no layman can separate butter from milk, so no one can extricate the merged self from matter by acquiring some material qualification.” Srila Prabhupada, you are expertly disentangling my real self, which has been merged in the external energy of the Lord.
7. Toasting the besan for the laddus, I remember the saying, “A confectioner is never attracted by sweetmeats.” Krishna has produced innumerable spiritual beauties and is not at all attracted by the false beauty of this material creation. Srila Prabhupada, help me develop my attraction for the all-attractive Lord Krishna; then only will my attraction to the so-called beauty of this world become slackened.
8. I heat the ghee and toss in a handful of mustard seeds. One of those tiny seeds is like a universe containing innumerable planets. We are living on this tiny cold, dark planet, thinking we are enjoying, but our universe is like one mustard seed in a whole bag of mustard seeds. “The planets in the spiritual sky are at least three times the number of those in the material sky.… Each of them is eternal, indestructible, free from all kinds of inebrieties experienced in the material world. Each of them is self-illuminating and more powerfully dazzling than (if we can imagine) the total sunshine of millions of mundane suns. The inhabitants of those planets are liberated from birth, death, old age, and diseases and have full knowledge of everything.… They have nothing to do there except to render loving service to the Supreme Lord.… [The] spiritual happiness in the eternal kingdom of God cannot be imagined even by the great brahmacärés or sannyäsés, … but such happiness is factually attained by the unalloyed devotees of the Lord, by His divine grace.”
9. I chop a bunch of fresh coriander leaves. Each large stem was produced from a single coriander seed. Each and every coriander seed on the spice shelf will similarly sprout if planted in the ground. But if we fry these seeds, they will never sprout. Similarly, you have ignited the fire of devotional service in our hearts to burn up the seeds of sinful desire. Srila Prabhupada, give me the strength to keep this fire of Krishna consciousness burning in my heart.
10. In fact, Krishna is everything. He provides the moon’s cooling rays, which enliven the vegetables; He sends the rain to nourish the grains, and the sun to ripen the fruits. He is the fire on which I cook, and from Him comes the ability to perform the actual cooking task. The cooking pots and the floor on which I stand are nothing but Krishna’s external energy. The ability to remember all this comes from Krishna, and, Srila Prabhupada, all this detailed knowledge can be realized by your grace.
11. “If one offers Me, with love and devotion, a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water, I will accept it.”
12. The hungry family and guests arrive. Soon they will sit and eat Krishna’s prasädam and be released from all kinds of sins. The duration of their lives will increase, their existence will be purified, and they will gain strength, health, happiness, and satisfaction. But first they hear the kértana and the Bhagavad-gitä class. “This hearing is the expert treatment for the mad mind,” you have stated, “and eating the foodstuffs offered to Krishna is the appropriate diet for the suffering patient. This treatment is the process of Krishna consciousness.”
13. Srila Prabhupada, the hungry man feels pleasure, nourishment, and relief from hunger with every morsel of food. Similarly, by the process of Krishna consciousness, which you have kindly given, we gain devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from all other things. Thank you for saving me, Srila Prabhupada.