“Our dear friend Yashoda, your son sometimes comes to our houses before the milking of the cows and releases the calves, and when the master of the house becomes angry, your son merely smiles. Sometimes He devises some process by which He steals palatable curd, butter and milk, which He then eats and drinks. When the monkeys assemble, He divides it with them, and when the monkeys have their bellies so full that they won’t take more, He breaks the pots. Sometimes, if He gets no opportunity to steal butter or milk from a house, He will be angry at the householders, and for His revenge He will agitate the small children by pinching them. Then, when the children begin crying, Krishna will go away.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 10.8.29)

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वत्सान् मुञ्चन् क्‍वचिदसमये क्रोशसञ्जातहास:
स्तेयं स्वाद्वत्त्यथ दधिपय: कल्पितै: स्तेययोगै:
मर्कान् भोक्ष्यन् विभजति स चेन्नात्ति भाण्डं भिन्नत्ति
द्रव्यालाभे सगृहकुपितो यात्युपक्रोश्य तोकान्

vatsān muñcan kvacid asamaye krośa-sañjāta-hāsaḥ
steyaṁ svādv atty atha dadhi-payaḥ kalpitaiḥ steya-yogaiḥ
markān bhokṣyan vibhajati sa cen nātti bhāṇḍaṁ bhinnatti
dravyālābhe sagṛha-kupito yāty upakrośya tokān

A person frustrated with how difficult it is to maintain life in the so-called advanced times of the modern day offers complaints along the following lines:

“Do you have any idea the level of oversight required in simply maintaining a household? Take something basic like cooking. If the husband and wife have an earnest desire to eat healthy, to make food from scratch instead of reaching for items from the freezer. It is not as easy as you would think.

“The process begins in an unexpected place: the sink. That must be clear before you are going to cook anything. Well, if you want to clear the sink, you have to place items in the dishwasher. Then, the dishwasher has to be empty; that is another prerequisite. You need a place for everything to go. Modern life is accumulating stuff to a degree never before conceived.

“I am serious about this. The biggest problems homeowners face is the accumulation of stuff. You could make decluttering a full-time job if you wanted to. Bearing this in mind, I can see why people succumb to eating out. They would rather not bother; it is too much trouble. This very disconnect in something so integral to the human experience has many negative effects that metastasize into something much worse in the future.”

Saints of the Vedic tradition, such as His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, push forward the recommendation from Bhagavad-gita pertaining to offering. The call is to essentially turn the entire life experience into yajna. As eating is an integral aspect of that life experience, the relationship with food can be turned into an expression of faith, surrender, sacrifice, and, of course, appreciation.

पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं
यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति
तद् अहं भक्त्य्-उपहृतम्
अश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.26)

In the following review, we see how a basic activity like cooking, done on a regular basis, within the home, can facilitate a deeper connection with the source of everything.

1. Involves human effort

Making something involves human effort. The Sanskrit word is paurusham. The living being, who is purusha, follows some action that has an intended result. When there is human effort, there is some sort of connection with the result. Shri Krishna is ultimately behind this ability in man, but we have a choice in how to act.

रसो ऽहम् अप्सु कौन्तेय
प्रभास्मि शशि-सूर्ययोः
प्रणवः सर्व-वेदेषु
शब्दः खे पौरुषं नृषु

raso ‘ham apsu kaunteya
prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ
praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu
śabdaḥ khe pauruṣaṁ nṛṣu

“O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.8)

Through explicit human effort, a person will not think that the food magically appears on their plate. They may even take time to consider the different kinds of food and how they were originally produced.

2. Gives clear pictures of before and after

Paurusham interacts with another critical factor of a human existence: time. In cooking, there is a before. These are the raw ingredients. We might even snap a photograph to share online, in a social media post. The ingredients have accompanying measurements. There is a requirement of preciseness.

In cooking, there is also an after. This is the end-result. This is the visible phalam to the karma. The fruitive action yields a certain kind of fruit. This is another reminder that something does not appear out of nothing. For every effect, there is an initial cause.

3. Control over ingredients

Why does the bread on the supermarket shelf have twenty ingredients listed? When made at home, there are perhaps four ingredients used. Why are all those extra things added to something basic like wheat flour? Why is it necessary to enrich something that nature already produced for human consumption?

By asking such questions, the individual has greater control over what they eat. They see what goes into their food. They may even arrive at a conclusion of the impact the ingredients make. They can then decipher what is needed and what is not.

4. Understanding of the source of ingredients

The person cooking must acknowledge from where the ingredients came. The process involved. The planting of a seed. The requirement for fertile ground. The dependency on rain. The level of violence involved. It is almost like Shri Krishna knew what He was doing when He long ago recommended yajna, for creating auspicious circumstances.

अन्नाद् भवन्ति भूतानि
पर्जन्याद् अन्न-सम्भवः
यज्ञाद् भवति पर्जन्यो
यज्ञः कर्म-समुद्भवः

annād bhavanti bhūtāni
parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ
yajñād bhavati parjanyo
yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ

“All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rain. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is born of prescribed duties.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 3.14)

5. Chance to feel grateful

If we understand the dependency on nature for the proper distribution of rain, which in turn allows for all outcomes related to food, then we will likely feel grateful. This is the way of the intelligent person, the brahmana. The kripana remains a miser; they are only interested in taking. They insist that nature cooperate with their desires, while they remain miserable in the process.

…

What if we could feel grateful every single day? What if we could expand the scope of appreciation, to beyond the limits of food production? What if we could feel good at every single moment, due to the connection in consciousness?

This sort of steady-stream of appreciation is known as the transcendental consciousness. It is especially prominent in the sacred land of Gokula-Vrindavana, during the time of Shri Krishna. There is a oneness in the connection, but also a dynamic flow of unexpected results.

The people show the greatest appreciation since they are always connected to Krishna. That young child of Nanda and Yashoda intrudes. He breaks and enters. He takes things that do not belong to Him. He causes a stir. He is a nuisance. Astonishingly, the other mothers welcome the disturbance. They are already connected to the source of everything through their steady attention to food production at home. Krishna rewards their good characteristics with the blessing of His direct association, which then never leaves them.

In Closing:

Daily food to make,
And here this child to take.

Our butter kept safely in store,
Proper preparation for.

But feeling at liberty without shame,
Even today that boy came.

With complaints to Yashoda we’ll go,
But truthfully blessed are we to know.

Categories: the five

Tags: cooking, dailyprompt, hare krishna, krishna lila, poem, poems, poetry