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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Gopinatha hides sweet rice

Madhavendra proceeded towards the south. On the way he came to Remuna, where Gopinatha is situated. Upon seeing the beauty of the Deity, Madhavendra Puri was overwhelmed. In the courtyard of the temple, from which people generally took darshan, he chanted and danced in great ecstasy. After a wile he sat down on the temple floor. Observing the excellent food preparation made for the pleasure of the Lord he could understand that only the best quality of food was offered for the satisfaction of Gopinathaji. He thus thought, ‘I shall inquire from the priest what foods are offered to Gopinatha so that by making arrangements in our kitchen, we can offer the same kind of food to Sri Gopal.’

When the brahmana priest was questioned about this matter, he explained in detail what kinds of foods were offered to Gopinatha. Thus he explained: ‘In the evening the Deity is offered sweet rice in twelve earthen cups. Because the taste is as good as nectar, it is named amrita-keli. This sweet rice is famous as gopinatha-kshira. It is not offered anywhere else.’

While Madhavendra Puri was talking with the priest, the sweet rice was placed before the Deity as an offering. Thus he thought as follows. ‘If, without my asking, a little sweet rice is given to me, I can taste it and then make the same preparation for Gopal.’

Thinking like that, Madhavendra Puri became greatly ashamed when he desired to taste the sweet rice, and he immediately began to think of Lord Vishnu. While he was thus thinking of Lord Vishnu, the offering was completed, and the arati ceremony began.

After the arati was finished, Madhavendra Puri offered his obeisances to the Deity and then left the temple. He did not speak with anyone about his desire and thus he left the temple and sat down in the village marketplace, which was vacant. Sitting there, he began to chant.

In the meantime, the temple priest laid the Deity down to rest. After finishing his daily duties, the priest went to take rest. Then in a dream Gopinatha came to talk to him, ‘Pujariji, please get up and open the door of the temple. I have kept one pot of sweet rice for the sannyasi Madhavendra Puri. It is just behind My cloth curtain. You did not see it because I hided it. The sannyasi named Madhavendra Puri is sitting in the vacant marketplace. Please take this pot of sweet rice from behind Me and deliver it to him.’

Awaking from the dream, the priest immediately rose from bed and thought it wise to take a bath before entering the Deity's room. He then opened the temple door. According to the Lord's directions, the priest found the pot of sweet rice behind the cloth curtain. He removed the pot and mopped up the place where it had been kept. He then went out of the temple. Closing the door of the temple, he went to the village with the pot of sweet rice. He called out in every stall in search of Madhavendra Puri. Holding the pot of sweet rice, the priest called, ‘Will he whose name is Madhavendra Puri please come and take this pot! Gopinatha has hidden this pot of sweet rice for you! Would the sannyasi whose name is Madhavendra Puri please come and take this pot of sweet rice and enjoy the prasadam with great satisfaction! You are the most fortunate person within these three worlds!’

Hearing this, Madhavendra Puri came out and identified himself. The priest then delivered the pot of sweet rice and offered his obeisances, falling flat before him and then narrated to him about the dream. Understanding the Lord’s great affection for him Madhavendra Puri at once became absorbed in ecstatic love of Krishna.


Upon seeing the ecstatic loving symptoms manifest in Madhavendra Puri, the priest was struck with wonder. He could understand why Krishna had become so much obliged to him, and he saw that Krishna’s action was befitting. The priest offered his obeisances to Madhavendra Puri and returned to the temple. Then, in ecstasy, Madhavendra Puri ate the sweet rice offered to him by Krishna.

After eating, Madhavendra Puri washed the pot and broke it into pieces. He then bound all the pieces in his outer cloth and kept them nicely. Each day, Madhavendra Puri would eat one piece of that earthen pot, and after eating it he would immediately be overwhelmed with ecstasy.

Having broken the pot and bound the pieces in his cloth, Madhavendra Puri began to think, ‘The Lord has given me a pot of sweet rice, and when the people hear of this tomorrow morning, there will be great crowds. Thinking this, Sri Madhavendra Puri offered his obeisances to Gopinatha on the spot and left Remuna before morning broke.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Sweet Rice Pastime

Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was always engaged in worshiping Sri Radha-Govinda within his mind. One day, in his meditation he prepared and offered sweet-rice to Sri Radha and Krsna. In great happiness They and the gopis ate the sweet rice, and he accepted Their remnants. While he was honoring their Lordship's prasada, he was filled with intense love and ate slightly more than what he was accustomed to. The next day, from morning until late afternoon his door remained closed, causing the devotees some concern. After they knocked repeatedly on his door, it finally opened and they saw him lying down. "My health is not good," he explained to Sridasa. The devotees were unhappy and immediately sent word to Sanatana Gosvami in Mathura. At that time Sri Sanatana was staying at the house of Vallava Acarya. Upon hearing the news, Vallavacarya's son, Sri Viththal, sent two doctors to see Raghunatha dasa at Radha-kunda.

Seeing his condition the physicians insisted that Raghunatha's illness was the result of eating too much sweet rice. The devotee were dumfounded by such a suggestion, but eventually understood the mystery. The worship of Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was very wonderful. Kavi Karnapura has written in Gaura-gano-desa dipika that Sri Raghunatha was Rasamanjari in Krsna lila. According to some other persons he was Ratimanjari or Bhanumati.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Jain Recipes - No Garlic, Onion & Egg

http://www.jainuniversity.org/jain-foods.aspx
http://www.jainworld.com/jainfoodrecipes/index.asp
http://www.indianmirror.com/cuisine/jain-recipes.html

Prasad and Rishi

Once he was in the company of four companions, or lovers, and a Rishi who lived in the mountain fastnesses came for Krishna's prasad. He had lived so long in meditation that his eyelashes grew downwards, and ants made their home on his body. Krishna replied that prasad was for his lovers, and none else. This consisted of laddhu, or Indian sweetmeat balls. At last the Rishi, who was very intelligent, begged Krishna's favorite disciple Pendya, who was a cripple, to ask Krishna for him. This Krishna permitted, because he was the slave of his lovers, and as a result the Rishi gained
Krishna Prem

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Jail Promises to Serve Prisoners Prasadam

http://www.vrindavan-dham.com/vrinda/2008_Jail_Promises_to_Serve_Prasadam.php

Millionaire

In 1727 Dhananjay Mehta, a wealthy man from Hyderabad in South India, came to Jagannatha Puri along with his family.

Niladri Bije

Personally, he had no faith in Jagannatha and was proud of his wealth. While in Puri he decided to challenge this strange image made of wood. In the temple, food is offered to the deities three times daily. Dhananjay Mehta publicly declared he would donate one hundred thousand rupees to Jagannatha if the temple cooks could spend all of it to prepare one offering of prasad. In those days, fruit and vegetables were very inexpensive. Even one hundred rupees was enough to buy the ingredients for one offering of food. What would the cooks do with one thousand rupees, what to speak of one hundred thousand? Dhananjay’s challenge created a problem for Jagannatha’s worshipers, and they were undoubtedly sad to see such an attitude on the part of a so-called devotee.

The priest debated, “Should he be told that such a huge amount is absolutely too much? Should we tell him to give a smaller donation? Would that be too embarrassing to ask of him? We know Jagannatha is great—his temple is majestic, his rituals mystical and divine—so how can we tell this man to give less just so that we ordinary mortals can handle it?”

At that time, butter was the most costly ingredient, and the priests began to consider whether they could buy enough butter to make a large quantity of ghee for cooking. What type of prasad could be prepared from only ghee? The most delicious and costliest prasad could easily be prepared with butter and coconut palm sweets for ten thousand rupees, but this millionaire from Hyderabad wanted to offer prasad costing one hundred thousand rupees!

Since the Jagannatha temple was first established, lakhs of people had been served maha-prasada at the temple’s Ananda Bazaar. To this day one can find delicacies in abundance. In fact, the Jagannatha temple is the only temple in the world to have always treated maha-prasada as more valuable even than seeing the deities. All can eat it, regardless of caste, color, or creed. Yet never before had such a problem arisen. The temple cooks were at their wits’ end. There was no prasad that could be prepared that would cost one hundred thousand rupees!

Finally they decided, “Let us communicate this problem to the Lord himself, and let his will prevail. Lord Jagannatha is not a man of flesh and blood to be prayed to for a simple response. Let there be a dharana, or group prayer, before him. Nobody can prevail over his wishes.” So the head priest made a heartfelt prayer, backed by the one-pointed intention of the other priests, “O Lord, please choose the food you desire.”

At the same time, Dhananjay was anxious to return to his business affairs in Hyderabad. He did not want to stay in Puri any longer. So he asked the head priest to come by the next morning to inform him about their decision concerning the prasad. The priest replied that he was waiting for the Lord to give them an answer. That was exactly what Dhananjay wanted, and to see the defeat of the priests he decided to extend his stay in Puri a little longer. In this sweet way, the Lord was teaching him.

One hundred thousand rupees is a pittance for the Lord who reigns over innumerable universes. In due time the Lord answered the head priest’s prayer, speaking to him in a dream: “Let Dhananjay offer me one piece of pan . However, the betel nut in the pan leaf must be smeared not with lime but with the powder of a finely ground pearl. Moreover, this pearl must have come from inside a bull elephant’s forehead.”

Now, one piece of pan can be purchased with almost no money—even today it costs only about fifty paisa—but with this rarest of ingredients inside, the cost would be excessive. Immediately the priest rushed to Dhananjay and narrated the contents of his dream. “Is this not a great thing? Jagannatha wants a mere betel nut, but it must be prepared with the pearl from an bull elephant’s head.”

Hearing this, Dhananjay’s face paled. He thought, “A mere betel nut! Nothing more than that!” It is said that an elephant is worth one hundred thousand rupees, dead or alive. How many bull elephants would have to be killed to find one pearl? Not every bull elephant has a pearl inside its forehead. It is a rare phenomenon. Indeed, one in a million has a pearl in its forehead. Dhananjay’s head reeled and he had to admit defeat. He was incapable of offering even a single betel nut to Lord Jagannatha. Unknotting his turban and removing his sandals, he went running to the Lord with his purse full of rupees. A huge crowd followed, watching the strange sight.

The Lord had defeated a millionaire at his own game of dollars and cents. At last his human pride was crushed. He sobbed before the deity, reaching out to Jagannatha with unrestrained, childlike cries. In total devotion and defeat he prayed, “O Lord, I have made a stupid human blunder, for I am totally incapable of offering you even a single betel nut. What else can I offer? O Lord, pardon me. I am a fallen man, insignificant before you, but made wise before you also. Everything is yours and you are everything. Take whatever I have. Please accept only the sweet-smelling red betel nut of my heart.”

Feeding Ducks Krishna Prasadam

John Lennon, George Harrison, Patti Boyd, Yoko Ono and devotees enjoying prasadam at John Lennon's Tiittenhurst Park estate, 1969.

http://tittenhurstlennon.blogspot.com/2009/08/tittenhurst-park-guests-hare-krishna.html

How to Make Advanced / Offering to Krish

http://www.ehow.com/how_2362410_make-advanced-offering-krishna.html http://www.ehow.com/how_2334192_prepare-krishna-consciousness-meals.html

Lord Chaitanyas Prasadam Pastimes

http://www.harekrsna.com/practice/prasadam/offerings/caitanya.htm

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The strike

Bhagavad-gita 13.19
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Bombay, 73/10/13
 
There is a story, Udarendriyanam in the Hitopadesa written by Visnusarma. There, there was strike. All the hands legs eyes, they observed strike, that "This belly, the stomach is eating only, and we are working. So we shall not work. We shall not work, stop working. Just like nowadays striking goes on. So they stopped working, and after few days, all of them became weak because they were not feeding the stomach. Then they arranged another conference. "Why we are becoming weak?" Then the fault was found out that because we are not giving to eat to the stomach. So of all then agreed, "Well, let the stomach eat, and let us work." So this is the nature's arrangement. The stomach will simply eat and the hands and legs and eyes, they must work.

Similarly, the central point is Krsna, God. God must simply eat. You must work. We are all part and parcel of... Mamaivamso jiva-bhutah [Bg. 15.7]. Just like part and parcel of my body. They must work. And the stomach shall eat. So this Krsna consciousness movement is that, that Krsna is the central stomach and you all work for Krsna. You are also benefited.

Just like here is Krsna. We are all working for Krsna whole day and night, but we are not starving. We are not starving, we are getting Krsna's prasada, nice foodstuff. So this cooperation should be...

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Onions - Garlic / No / Page / Notes / Effects

http://pp72.blogspot.com/2013/01/garlic-rahu-and-onion-ketu.html

http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/no_onions_and_garlic.htm
http://www.salagram.net/Onions-Garlic-in-relation2Vaishnavism.html

http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/profiles/blogs/notes-on-onions-and-garlic



ILL effects of GARLIC:
  1. It has high content of latex.
  2. It is very HOT by nature.
  3. It does not contain any vitamin.
  4. Since it is very HOT it hinders the elimination of toxins from the body.
  5. Improper elimination of toxins causes conditions for various infections within the body.
  6. Being very HOT it increases convalescence period after a cold.
  7. As it is very HOT, it reduces the effectiveness of all our senses.
  8. Improper elimination of toxins from the body affects our complexion.
  9. Improper elimination of toxins from the body also causes open pores and deposits of toxins on the skin, these lead to loss of radiance and loss of resistance against germs and bacteria present in the atmosphere.
  10. Being more vigorous than gastric juice, it reduces its effect and thereby affecting digestion leading to gastric disorders.
  11. It has a bad effect on the taste buds found on our tongue thereby our sense of taste is reduced and we don’t enjoy the real taste and flavour of food.
  12. From a spiritual point of view, garlic is considered as “tamassic (negative)”.
  13. According to doctors the presence of toxins in the body affects the metabolism of the body and this leads to weakness which in turn give us fit of anger. Such a state breeds negative thoughts and we usually resort to inappropriate means to counter this effect. On the contrary we ought to give up garlic to cure us.
Some qualities of garlic make it beneficial for the following external uses:
  1. When children suffer from fever, wearing a garland of garlic seeds relieves them.
  2. Garlic juice drops in the ear relieves ear aches and fights related ear infections.
ILL effects of Onion
  1. Onion contains latex and sulphur.
  2. Tear formation in the eye while cutting is due to the high concentration of sulphur in it.
  3. The advantages and disadvantages of onion are comparable to that of sulphur.
  4. Sulphur dioxide is one of the major agents that cause air pollution. It proves to be dangerous to the human body even if present in trace amount.
  5. Intake of onion induces sulphur in the human body and it mixes up with the gastric juices which results into such mixtures that hamper digestion.
  6. Sulphur deposits on the intestine like a layer of cement. This has been proved from the post-mortem report of an American patient who died due to acute deposit of sulphur in his intestine which prevented correct absorbtion of drugs.
  7. Sulphur dioxide dissolves in the body fluid to produce Sulphuric acid. It reduces the pH of the blood lower than 7.4 thus, hindering proper blood circulation.
  8. There are few advantages of consuming onion but these remain negligible when compared to its disadvantages.
  9. The combined effects of both onion and garlic result into a high concentration of latex within the body and this renders us weak, dull and prone to consumption of drugs in order to counter it. Even our religious scripts point that onion and garlic are extremely injurious to physical and mental health.
  10.  The consumption of onion and garlic has destructive effects on our mental powers. The destruction of the mind leads to total destruction.


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