A few weeks ago, while visiting the Hare Krishna Temple on the famous Inis Rath island (Co. Fermanagh), I was asked to distribute the food offered for free to all the visiting guests. Any Hare Krishna temple offers delicious vegetarian preparations to the public as part of their weekly Sunday programmes. The food is prepared with love and devotion and is called prasadam which means mercy. Prasadam food is sanctified food which means it has been offered to God.
On that day about 10 devotees were quickly filling up the plates and cups of the guests who had formed a pretty long line. Close to a hundred guests were treated on that day to seven different preparations which had been freshly cooked in the morning specifically for the Sunday feast. When everybody had received their food (many came back for the seconds) and spread around the island to honour it and we began to clean up the food distribution tables, one young man in his early twenties came over and asked me, “What was it? I mean this drink, what’s in it?” I smiled and replied, “Krishna’s sweetness, that’s what it is”. Neither of the cooks had eaten their lunch yet, in fact at that moment we were trying to figure out if there was any food left at all for the cooks and food distributors, so I really hadn’t myself tried anything yet, hence my vague reply. But the young man persisted, ‘What is this drink really? Tell me what it is made of please.” So I asked our chef-of-the-day, the volunteer devotee who had travelled for about two hours with his wife to cook the Sunday feast- A very nice Ukrainian couple - Venupani Prabhu and Gopi Gita Mataji.
Venupani Prabhu said, “Well, strawberries, some mint and sugar. Boiled as tea. That’s it”.
The young man looked incredulous, “Is that it, really??”
“Yep”, confirmed the chef.
There are two secret ingredients in Krishna prasadam. One - the love and devotion of those who cook the food and offer it to Krishna, and two - Krishna’s spiritual blessing that transforms the food into prasadam. It is said that Krishna Himself accepts the food and all partaking in prasadam receive His mercy, which helps them to grow spiritually. It is believed that eating prasadam burns away sinful karma and purities the heart.
Only strictly vegetarian food is offered as Krishna Himself clarifies in Bhagavad Gita what He accepts. "If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it." — Bhagavad Gita 9.26
If you want to feel the power of prasadam, come to our temple in Dublin on any Sunday and get first hand experience of its magic. For free. No strings attached, pure grace.
Govinda dasi.
ISKCON Dublin - Director