What is spiritual food to a Hare Krishna devotee?
Kurma Dasa: Way back in 1966, Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna Movement, himself a wonderful cook, showed us how to hold regular ‘Love Feasts’ every week. He said that such feasts for the public should become an important part of the Hare Krishna movement. “Vegetarian food offered to Krishna becomes spiritual”, he said, “and whoever eats the food – called prasadam – receives great spiritual benefit.” So cooking can actually be yoga – bhakti-yoga – “the yoga of love”. One of the main elements of bhakti-yoga, is the preparation of sacred foods, foods fit for God. For thousands of years, priests in temples throughout India had prepared divine vegetarian offerings for the Supreme Being, known by names such as Krishna and Rama. These offerings were saturated with love and devotion. The Sanskrit word ‘yoga’ carried the meaning of “connection,” {the English word “yoke”, referring to the brace that oxen wear to plough the fields, comes from Yoga}. Specifically the connection refers
