Prasadam Interviews

Feast, Quantity Cooking for Krishna's Kitchen

Excerpt from the Introduction of Feast, Quantity Cooking for Krishna's Kitchen:

"While Srila Prabhupada was physically present, Sunday Feasts were a significant part of

the temple sankirtan program. Everyone pitched in to prepare, serve and attend the feast. We

worked together to share with the fortunate attendees the magical experience of devotional

life by putting forward the best we could offer. Every week we worked to please Krishna so

that His prasadam would delight and inspire the guests, sealing the deal with extraordinary

culinary impressions even if little from the lecture or kirtan might be retained. Srila Prabhupada

described prasadam as his “secret weapon” which provided a tangible taste of the spiritual world.

In those days, cooking and serving feasts for Krishna was an effort comparable to a theatrical

production, where everyone played a collaborative role to create a seamless presentation. Not

only that, but the temple kitchen was also an ideal setting for fostering life-long friendships and

working relationships centered around service to Krishna.

Preparing beautiful-looking, delicious and sumptuous-tasting feast prasadam is undoubtedly

an art form; but this book is more than just recipes; it is a glimpse into the devotional mindsets

of Srila Prabhupada’s original cooking disciples and their followers. The power of prasadam lies

in the pure heart of the cook, to become, as Srila Prabhupada said, “a transparent via medium,”

where the mercy and grace Srila Prabhupada taught us are presented as is. 

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Prasadam Interview Excerpts

About The Conversations

 I started this project because preparing, serving and honoring  prasadam was one of the most powerful and impactful methods for people to connect with Krishna consciousness. How many devotees do we know who just joined because of eating prasadam? So not just from documenting the experiences of what it feels like or what our impressions were of prasadam, but also every step of the way we all participated.   -Gopati das

Tejiyas Das

One thing also came to my mind that Srila Prabhupada was discussing about how to be ready anytime someone visited our centers, to always be able to feed them a meal. There is an Indian system, which is actually more North Indian than South Indian. The mother will make some chapati dough and they might use it in the breakfast or might use it in the lunch, but they’ll keep it in a cool place and covered. And then they’ll make some potatoes. Prabhupada described you have the chapati dough ready, and then if it’s not used you can use it for something in the evening. And then you have some boiled potatoes, you have them ready, and if they’re not used they can be used in the evening. So that anytime someone comes, you can quickly make something out of potatoes and you can make some chapatis, puris. Chapatis are faster in a sense. So very pragmatic, and he mentioned that it wouldn’t go to waste. And then he also gave me a list of items that I’m only going to partially remember, but they’re the typical type of North Indian savories. They also have them, I’m not sure, in Bengal. They have various types throughout India, different types of savories. There’s one, this matri. It’s like a puri and it has ajwain seeds in it. It looks like a little puri, it’s flat, it’s not puffed. And then also with the green dal you fry it, and it can keep for quite some time. So he said we should always keep something so that any guest comes we can immediately feed them something, which is, of course, not just a Vedic tradition, it’s a tradition all over the world. Being able to feed someone—that was always something prominent on his list.

Mrgakshi Devi Dasi

 It was a peaceful place. I really enjoyed being there and getting to make the offerings for Radha-Muralidhara. When it was my turn to make the nine o’clock sweet or something, I always made something out of apples. That’s all I knew how to do—apple dumplings, apple crisp. Krishna got apples a lot from me.

But putting that whole consciousness, the consciousness of how you do it—the purity is the force. So when you’re cooking and you’re thinking, “What does Krishna really like? Oh, He’ll like this, He’ll like that, He’ll like that.” So that’s the most important thing, the consciousness. It’s like if you eat at a restaurant, you get the consciousness of the persons that are making that; and it affects you on the subtle levels, you don’t realize.

Jagadisvara Das

Narottamananda was in charge of the kitchen, and he was taking his prasadam apart because he was busy. He wasn’t following the mass schedule. So he was there and he was eating off of his wax paper on the floor, and he was saving a big gulabjamon for last, save the best for last type of thing. And just as he got to it, Bhagavan swooped down and grabbed it and popped it in his mouth with a big grin. 

Kuladri Das

Yeah, I was at the University of Pittsburgh, and devotees were on campus. This was in late ‘69, early ’70. I got a Bhagavatam and within a few days I went to the temple, and shortly after that I joined. It was a small house in Pittsburgh. I didn’t tell Kutila that I was joining, but I invited her to come over and see me. And when she came in the door, I was shaved up with a dhoti and she ran out of there faster than you could see, heading for the hills. But eventually, I have no idea how or why, somehow or other she came back and we carried on from there.

So, Kirtanananda Swami wasn’t involved right away, and I went down to New Vrindavan. I wanted to visit New Vrindavan. My uncle had a farm that I stayed on by myself for a couple of months in summer while going to college. For some reason, it wasn’t in my childhood, but I just kind of felt an affinity for that. So I went to New Vrindavan, spent a couple months and learned to milk the cows, and we stretched fence and all of that.

When I came back to Pittsburgh, Kirtanananda arrived; and when it comes to cooking, I learned all of my early recipes from him. And you remember that Prabhupada called him “Kitchenananda” sometimes. So he taught me what Prabhupada taught him. That’s where my success in making samosas started. He showed me the exact recipe that Prabhupada told him, and that’s what I did. 

Moksha Lakshmi Devi Dasi

  It was  1975 or maybe early ’76 when I lived in Bombay, Mumbai now. It was before the temple was built. So the temple in those days was basically a slab of concrete with a few poles holding up a corrugated tin roof, you know how they’re shaped. That was the temple in Bombay. And at the back there was a brick Deity room, and beyond that was a small kitchen of brick for the Deities with those kerosene pumps that you had to pump them, cookers. You pump, pump, pump, and you get a flame. So that was the one. And then there was a devotee kitchen—half brick, a gap, and a straw roof with some holes in to make the fires. So that was the facilities in Bombay, and it was a special day. Prabhupada was there. It was one of the acharyas’ disappearance or appearance days. I think it was Bhaktisiddhanta. So we decided to make a108 prep feast in those conditions. But we were kind of used to India, so we did it. We made this huge feast. Of course, we did the usual cheats where we’d make Simply Wonderfuls—one had currants, one had cashews, one had currants and cashews. But somehow it all added up to a 108 feast. It was a miracle because how we didn’t set off the straw roof on the devotee kitchen, but somehow we did this108. There was a team of us, obviously.

So then Hansaduta comes down and says, “Oh, you have to take this up to show Srila Prabhupada, all these preparations.” So actually Sarvamangala and I were taking these big trays. Now, the lids to Indian pots are like plates. They don’t have handles, they’re just flat plates. So we put all the preps on these big, big lids to pots and we carried them across Hare Krishna Land, and we got to the stairs and the lids were wider than the stairway up to Prabhupada’s room. I can’t even remember how we managed to get all this feast up to Srila Prabhupada. It was all taken in to Prabhupada, and Prabhupada sent the message out that “This movement is nothing without its feasts.” That’s the message we got, Hansaduta brought the message out for us. Of course, somehow on the way down we didn’t have to carry so much stuff with Hansaduta and all the swamis up there. They helped us a lot by keeping the dishes of prasadam and we didn’t have to carry them back. But that’s another story.

Parasurama Das

We have a team of guys on bicycles, and they bring the prasad around to the people who can’t get out of their house, the elderly people, sick people. So the team knocks on the doors. Also, during the pandemic we were feeding the devotees, which is very nice. What happened was devotees started making their own teams. Like one house would say, “OK, give me 50 meals,” and they would go around to their neighbors and people they knew were sick or devotees who were sick or couldn’t get out. We were spending a thousand quid a day actually just on fruit for this. So people would get a nice bag of fruits and vegetables and nice prasadam, some shrikhand, right to their door. Because food is love, that’s the whole thing. I made aValentine’s video. 

Sripati Das

Uttamasloka Das

(In) Toronto. Ayodhyapati was the cook. I gave him free rein, and he cooked up a storm. He would love to come out in the evening offerings. After the evening kirtan, he would come out with what he made for the Deities, just a little pot because they don’t make it for all the devotees, just to see Viswakarma and I, our faces light up when we tried it. That was a thing for him. “Did you like it?” “Oh, my God, that was so good!” Then we’d pass it around to other people. “Oh, my God!” So we had the bug back then, and I let him go. I said, “We’re going to get basmati rice, not the cheap rice because it’s fifty bucks cheaper or twenty bucks cheaper. We’re getting basmati rice. I don’t care if it’s more. Devotees deserve the best.”

In fact, one time I was sweeping the temple room floor, cleaning and listening to a lecture. Prabhupada said, “Krishna will carry what you lack, preserve what you have. But He’s not a poor man. He’s not going to give you a pound of rice, He’s going to give you a big bag of rice.” I thought, “That’s great.” Fast forward, a couple of hours later...ding dong. I go to the front door, there’s an Indian guy there with 100 pounds of rice in a big bag. He says, “Krishna told me to bring this to you.” The same day! I almost fainted. So that was a signal, “You’re on the right track.”

Malati Devi Dasi

One of the most thoughtful cooks I can recall, going back to 1967-1968 was Harsharani. She would meditate while cooking. Her stand-alone, stand-out dish was halava. She poured her loving consciousness into that halava dish. Carefully, carefully, slowly, slowly roasting the grains. Never any haste. So beautifully done. And you would taste the devotion. And people would ask, what do you put in there that it tastes so great? We would be accused of putting drugs in our food because it was just something so unique.

Srila Prabhupada would say, “We don’t eat prasadam, we honour prasadam.” 

Bhoumadeva Das

This mood in some places is not given priority or attended to.  In terms of the ingredients like ghee, and the attention to those details.   One place where it is always as Srila Prabhupada taught us is at the Bhaktivedanta Manor.  It is wonderful to still have a window into this spiritual world.

Cooking in terms of the ingredients used.  Bhaktivedanta Manor was just like it was in the old days.  Krsna is never alone, he is always with his devotees.  So if you are in the mood of cooking it and serving it, then the experience is there. In some ways that has not been passed on. 

Mukhya Devi Dasi

So we got the Fisher Mansion and we moved over, and then I started to do a lot more cooking. We had some wonderful Indian families, initiated devotees, there because in those days the Indians mostly came to Detroit because they were working for the auto industry. So we had a lot of families in our temple along with everybody else who lived in Detroit, and I just entered into the world of Gujarati cooking with my friends Panchajani, Vishnuvrata, and Vrindavaneshvari. We had a little team and we would cook for festivals and feasts together, and it opened my eyes to what vegetarian cooking really could be. 

Panchajani Devi Dasi

From when I was very young, I was told that whatever thoughts you have about cooking goes into the cooking.  Eleven or twelve years old, I did not understand. But later I really understood how you mind has to be out of any anger, madness, anxiety. Be happy and joyful.

For me it is Prabhupada’s kirtan, I automatically become happy.  Plus offering to Krishna

Everything you do goes into the process.

Govardhana Das

Rohini Kumar was an amazing cook. He used to make for the Sunday Feast...almost every week there were sangosa and there were bharats. And there was pushpana rice, for which he used to take dry powdered milk, mix it with a little water, and he’d roll it into these tiny balls about the size of a pea, and he would fry them in ghee and then add them to all the spices and seeds and such that would go into the pushpana. I don’t remember everything else that was in that rice, but it was really quite exotic with those little puffy balls of khoa, condensed milk. And then the bharats were a big hit, and some kind of vegetable and often gulabjamun or another sweet, it could be laddu. The things that stood out were the things that were favorite.

I neglected to mention that when they made those bharats, they were deep fried. They were formed in a large spoon and slipped into hot ghee and then deep fried, laid in a flat pan, covered with buttermilk, and then baked. So when they came out of the oven, they had absorbed some of the moisture from the buttermilk but the layer of curd and thickened buttermilk would sit on the little patties. So those were one of the big prizes, everybody ate lots of those.  

Narottamananda Das

So then I, being a devotee in the temple and wanting to make wonderful prasad for Krishna and for the pleasure of the devotees...because sharing prasad is an act of love. It really does bring people together. And especially the early devotees were giving up all their sense gratification, so what pleasure did we get? Really the main thing was prasad. The Sunday Feast was a big plate of sweets and a big plate of salty—samosa and puri and this and that. Brahmacaris and even the women, everybody would walk around with two plates.

Apurva Das

So I just thought, “Wow!” I never could imagine that food could taste like this. I remember one thing was chutney. I had never had chutney before. So at first I didn’t exactly like it, but gradually I came to like it very much. We both joined in the Brooklyn temple. I started coming in 1972. They would make up the plates all in rows with just the cold preparations, the chutneys and the sweet rice in a cup. They had puris with powdered sugar on them and pakoras and samosas and all these paneer subjis. Of course, I think most of us, we never could imagine that food could taste so good. So that was my main thing. They used to have a little bake sale, and I would always buy to take home banana bread and Sandies cookies.

I remember I purchased the little Hare Krishna Cookbook, and then I thought, “But how come mine never tastes like that? It doesn’t taste like theirs. It never comes out so good.” 

Cintamani Devi Dasi

So that was in the Los Angeles La Cienega temple. I went there from New Vrindavan. At that time, Prabhupada didn’t let single women live at the farm. There was hardly anyone there. So I went to La Cienega temple. That was the big temple at the time. That was where they did something called sankirtan, and Visnujana was famous. We’d go out twice a day on Harinama. We’d go to Hollywood Boulevard in the evening and Sunset Strip and places like that in the day.

Prasadam was pretty simple. Very respectfully we would sit down on the floor. Of course, we were all young then. We would all sit on the floor with a madras, and someone would come with the big steel buckets. And everyone was quiet, listening to someone read or quiet.

Then on Sunday practically the whole temple would be cooking, and we had the best feasts. I still remember the sweet rice was the best sweet rice I’ve ever had. This is how they made it: they had a big, big pot and they’d stack up two burners, and they would cook it the entire night on a very low temperature with a bay leaf, a few raisins, and maybe a little camphor. It would cook the whole night so that the rice would almost melt and become like custard. That was good sweet rice. Then we’d have a whole table of devotees making samosas, and I was helping with that. 

Kalalapa Devi Dasi

One time Yamuna came to live there (UK). She was working on her cookbook and I was amazed by her focus and devotion.  She was on a massive mission that Srila Prabhupada had sent her on. She was fulfilling it.  One time there were some very wealthy life members who she had prepared dinner for.  A family member came into the kitchen to inspect to see if it was up to standard. Everything was super clean.  She was in the process of service and everything was spotless, she cleaned as she would go along.

Gopi Kanta Das

At that point, I also got involved...I don’t know who had stopped doing it, but they wanted someone to take over the Sunday Feast. So I got involved in more or less running the Sunday Feast. I had a lot of assistance from Pancajani...Mukhya was involved in the restaurant...and Apurva and Namarupa. They would come in and cook one or two preps. Apurva told me one of those “Prabhupada said” stories. He said, “Prabhupada has said that a feast was not a feast unless there were at least 11 preparations.” I got this in my head, so every Sunday I had to have 11 full preparations for the feast. It was fantastic, and I learned a lot from those couple of devotees.

Namarupa Devi Dasi

I have a list of some of the feasts that we did in Detroit. I think part of the feasts and the prasadam, it was so opulent, it was such a transcendental experience. Everybody just loved...the feasts were...it was just beyond...it was definitely in the transcendental realm. You were no longer on this planet, you were in Vaikuntha. 

Bhumi Devi Dasi

Gopati:  When did you start preparing prasadam?

Bhumi:  Years later. I was in Chicago in 1977. So I had already been a devotee for five years.

Actually I cooked for Srila Prabhupada once in Atlanta. I was there doing traveling sankirtan at the airport. The Atlanta airport is one of the major hubs in the South. So it was a huge airport, it was really big, and they sent me there to do book distribution. Srila Prabhupada was there, and I guess they needed cooks. I wasn’t a cook or anything. But they needed some things prepared, and they asked me to make some urad dal kachoris for him. So I just took out the Hare Krsna Cookbook and I followed the recipe. It was a really good recipe. I still will use it to this day. After the plate came out of his room, all of the cooks wanted to know, “Did he eat this? Did he eat that?” And I wanted to know if he had had the urad dal kachoris. I think I put three on the plate, and two of them were eaten.

I also would cook when we were on traveling sankirtan. My mother was a great cook. She made her meat and stuff like that, but she was a very, very good cook. So often when we were on traveling sankirtan, I would do the cooking. Very simple. I didn’t know too much about Indian cooking or anything, but I could make curd and I was just a natural cook.

When I got to Chicago, it was the first time that I ever remember being blown away by the prasadam, like “I want to learn how to make this” or “I want to become a cook.” And you had a big following there too because I remember that there were a lot of us who would go in the kitchen in the morning and help you out.

Gopati:  Yeah, I didn’t seem to have a lack of help in the breakfast time in Chicago because a lot of devotees could come in and work. Feasts were a little different. Usually we would have four or five devotees do the whole feast depending on how big the feast was. But for Sunday Feasts, that’s what it was.

Bhumi:  I think I remember always coming in for the feasts because I remember all the really interesting savories we would do and the chutneys. We wouldn’t do those during the week, so it must have been the Sunday Feasts that I helped cook.

Gopati:  Yeah, things like the big whole eggplant...not whole eggplant, but they were vertically cut so they were the size of shoe soles and we’d make pakoras out of those. Do you remember those?

Bhumi:  Yeah, and you were the first one I remember who put kalonji as a spice in the pakoras.

Gopati:  I got that from Anand Maharaja. 

Bhumi:  Right. Can I ask you questions too? Was there something that stood out about Anand Maharaja? Was his prasadam unique and special and a cut above anything else you had ever had?

Gopati:  In a surreal kind of way, he would cook Bengali and actually he was from Orissa. His family went back six generations as cooks at the temple in Puri. One of the stories that I heard from Pradyumna was that the Jagannatha cart stopped for his grandfather. So there’s this long history of that relationship. It was always good, but they weren’t the kind of Western-influenced flavors that we experience a lot. The subjis, the garam masala often had a little bit more clove in it. There were some flavor aspects that you get familiar with. But when it came down to it, everything was just well prepared, well thought out. It was his mindset that was the most important thing for me, where he was always focused on Krishna and preparing the food in a very focused way. But he was a very jolly personality too. He burned himself once, and he put a turmeric patch on it and he just laughed it off. He was 70-something at the time, and when he shaved his head he looked like he was 40. He was a unique personality.

Bhumi:  Had you ever had things like coconut chutney or imli or some other things that the first time I ever had them was when we were in Chicago.

Prabhas Dasa as told by Bisa Lakshi Devi Dasi

For one month after the Muslim riot in Mayapur, the whole compound was being guarded by the military. The main prasadam was khichari, except for Balarama’s appearance day where they served sweet rice. To make amends with everyone in the greater Mayapur area, they served unlimited sweet rice on banana leaf plates, feeding thousands.  

Prabhas joined in 1969 in Calcutta. They did have a Sunday love feast which was mostly rice, dal, subji and pakoras.  Not so many sweets. Then in 1969, he was in Mayapur and Prabhas was in Srila Prabhupada’s original hut.  So Prabhas was was the one who lived in the hut to protect the land.  With a single burner propane stove.  During the floods of 1970, he lived in the rafters of the grass hut and had a floating kitchen to prepare prasadam on.  His regular prasadam was khichari.  He had enough ingredients stockpiled for a month.  The locals would also bring vegetables as part of their relief program.  When the waters receded, he discovered that he was sharing the hut with a 20 foot snake, who ended up slithering out.  All the food was intact since the snake was on a different diet. 

Afterward the main prasadam was khichari with  green papaya, eggplant, tomato, spinach grown in the gardens.  Mahaprasadam had to be paid for, unless you were Pishima.  She had saved a piece of maha sandesha and shared it with me.  When we opened the box, the beautiful sweet was covered with little ants.  Pishima and I laughed and agreed it was probably best to leave the prasadam to the ants.  

When Prabhas was in Vrindavan.  Lots of khichari, lot of squash and no ghee with dry chapatis

Just before Srila Prabhupada entered samadhi, there was a huge farewell feast for Prabhupada’s godbrothers.  Srila Prabhupad wanted to ask his godbrothers forgiveness for any offenses he may have committed during the preaching of bhakti yoga.  Anand Maharaj cooked the feast where he was offsite.  It was on a big, gigantic plate.  It took two rickshaws for Prabhas and Sacidananda to carry the tray to Srila Prabhupada’s room where it was distributed to all the godbrothers.  

The last prasadam that Srila Prabhupada wanted and had before going into samadhi was a samosa.

Akhilananda Das

Then I helped cook the puris at the Bhagavat Discourses up there on the mountaintop when Prabhupada came to New Vrindavan. (Janmastami 1972) I came down from Cleveland with the devotees.

I got initiated then. I was helping roll puris behind the big...there were a bunch of madrases that separated the cooking area from Prabhupada’s vyasasana and all the other people in the tent. There must have been 8 or 10 woks going. That was so magical to be part of that and to see those many, many puris frying in the ghee there and the huge hot fires going, and just to be part of the team was really important.

Then after the feast, they had these huge 30-gallon pots. They were almost too deep to reach into, and they said, “Can you help clean these pots?” I said, “What am I going to use?” They said, “Well, stones and mud.” So we used these flat rocks to scrape the charred vegetable, and part of the vegetable had been something that was edible from the field but it wasn’t real soft to eat.

Garuda Das

(Yamuna) said to me one day, “Garuda, can I test these preps on you that I’m working on right now? I’m creating new preps.” I said, “Really? You’re moving from the traditional ones.” She said, “Well, Lord Krishna’s Cuisine has all the traditional ones in it.” So now Yamuna’s Table was in the process. I’m even mentioned in the Acknowledgments. I forget what she says exactly but some sort of she acknowledges me there for somehow helping her. All I did was eat what she made. She would often say, “Close your eyes, I don’t want you to see it.” And I said, “Well, isn’t seeing the preparation also kind of important?” She said, “Yes, but not at this point. I just need to know what happens when you taste it.” So she put something on a spoon, put it in front of me, and I was to lift the spoon and taste said item, whatever it was, which I often could not identify, honestly. All I knew is it was flavorful like crazy and melted in my mouth. I said, “What is this?!” She said, “Oh, I’m not telling.” So she used to experiment with me. I said, “As long as it doesn’t knock me out, I’m willing to eat anything that you make.”

So we talked about how ultimately it’s about the offering of the heart. And in one sense it doesn’t matter what form that offering takes, although the ingredients need to be pure. But it’s ultimately an offering of the heart. It’s a way of loving God really. Even in the Gita, Prabhupada quotes that verse in the 9th chapter of the Gita, one offers a leaf, a fruit, a flower, or water. That pretty much takes care of a vegetarian diet right there.

Bhusaya Das

Kurma Das

Excerpts From the The Great Transcendental Adventure: Pastimes of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in Australia and New Zealand

Around mid-morning, Srila Prabhupada noticed a strong, choking spicy smell of chillies in the air and called for Upendra. “Are you cooking, Upendra?” Prabhupada asked. “Yes, Srila Prabhupada.” “You are cooking too spicy,” Prabhupada admonished. “Oh, it’s not for you, Srila Prabhupada,” explained Upendra. “I’m cooking for the devotees.” “They should not eat spicy food either.” Prabhupada reminded Upendra that too much spicy food arouses the passions, insisting that, in future, Upendra season his cooking more sparingly. Page 218

After the class, a devotee entered Prabhupäda’s room with a silver plate of maha-prasadam from the Deities’ late-night offering, and placed it on his low desk. Prabhupada looked at the selection: bowls of vegetable preparations, puris, and hot milk. Prabhupada noted how the purés were all puffed-up like small translucent fawn-coloured balloons. “This puri is best,” said Prabhupada, pointing at the most spherical one of all. He turned to the devotee. “Who has cooked?” “Kurma dasa, Srila Prabhupada,” he replied. Prabhupada nodded in approval. “He is following the principles.” Srila Prabhupada called Srutakirti. “You learn from him how to make puris like this.” The discussion continued in a culinary direction. When cooking for Krishna, Prabhupada explained, one should keep in mind that he was preparing a meal for a hungry sixteen-year-old boy with a big appetite. He should thus cook quantities accordingly. As far as cooking the last, nighttime offering, Srila Prabhupada gave a suggested menu: three vegetable preparations, cooked with ghee; six large puris per plate or alternatively eight medium-sized or sixteen small puris per plate; a sweet cooked with ghee, like laddu, and hot milk. Page 240

Yamuna Devi

Excerpt from Yamuna Devi: A Life of Unalloyed Devotion, by Dinatarini Devi

Jagannatha Puri Like many pilgrims from the West, Yamuna and I were initially shocked at the prejudicial attitude of many residents of Puri to Caucasians. Because we were not allowed into the Jagannatha Mandir, we were often treated rudely or dismissively. Yet Yamuna was determined to somehow ingratiate herself with the pandas in charge of Lord Jagannatha’s massive kitchens. She had previously researched their procedures for worship and bhoga offerings—how Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur had standardized them, how Srila Prabhupada said they could serve 10,000 people on two hours’ notice, how they cooked in stacked, clay pots used only once—and she was fascinated. Somehow Lord Jagannatha would provide, she affirmed, and then she could share her findings with others by writing about them. Each day she would ask respected gentlemen and even government officials for assistance, and even though she was rebuffed several times, she remained determined. Finally, she met an aristocratic and highly respected Vaishnava, Mr. Chaupattnaik, who was gracious and helpful, and he arranged a series of interviews for Yamuna with one of the chief pandas, Sri Kanu Charan Puja Panda Samanth. For several days he would come to our Guest House bearing Jagannatha prasadam and patiently answer Yamuna’s questions. She would later say that this was the highlight of her Jagannatha Puri pilgrimage. 

Yamuna: I like the point you made yesterday. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “This prasadam tastes millions and millions of times better than nectar,” and He was fully satisfied. The hairs all over His body stood on end and incessant tears rolled from His eyes. This is what I was reading last night. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Only by great fortune will one come by a particle of the remnants of food offered to the Lord.” Srila Prabhupada explains that the remnants of Jagannatha’s foods are mixed with the saliva of the Lord. 

Mr. Chaupattnaik: Yes, that is why the smell comes—this aroma comes—otherwise such aroma is not possible. When it is going from the kitchen from to Lord Jagannatha there is no aroma, but when it is coming back there is aroma. So how is it possible? Only because of that; otherwise it’s not possible. Yamuna: These remnants of food that Jagannatha has eaten have turned to nectar with His lips. 

Mr. Chaupattnaik: And the pandas who do the offering can understand that—they can see that Lord Jagannatha is eating. There are so many things that we cannot understand, but some special things (are revealed) when they offer. Then I understand. I should get you one darshan of Lord Jagannatha somehow or other. 

Yamuna: You take this prasadam all the time, but it says in a quote from the Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya lila, “After much prayer the demigods themselves cannot obtain even a small portion of the remnants of Jagannatha prasadam. Only a person who has acted piously for many, many, many births and has thus become a devotee can obtain the remnants of such food.” This is your fortune. It is so extraordinary…. That’s why we’re so fortunate to have your association. It is through the devotees of the Lord that we obtain the mercy, and we would not taste this without your mercy—your kindness upon us. 

Mr. Chaupattnaik: It is Jagannatha’s mercy, Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, I have no quality. 

Yamuna: No, this is Lord Krishna’s kindness. This doesn’t happen by accident. I’m very fortunate to have your association.

Mr. Chaupattnaik: And today in the evening you can go to Gambhira. I will arrange a rickshaw and mataji can go on the cycle. So Gambhira there is no problem. So you can see the room of where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed, you can have darshan of the Padukas. 

Yamuna: Will they object if we sit and have little kirtan? 

Mr. Chaupattnaik: No, no objection. 

Yamuna:Because we like to sit and pray and chant in these places. 

Mr. Chaupattnaik: And in case they say anything, you just tell my name. Yamuna later wrote an inspiring article for Back to Godhead magazine based on these interviews, and spoke about them with great appreciation through the years. She was particularly impressed at the efforts in place to ensure cleanliness, promptness and the clear understanding that Lord Jagannatha is the enjoyer: 

Yamuna: All members of the kitchen staff begin training at age twelve after they’ve received brahmana initiation and the sacred thread. They serve for life or until they become too old to perform their duties. I asked Sri Samanth to state the most important principles in focusing the mind for service to the temple Deities. He replied, “Number one, before beginning to cook one should eat sufficiently and feel no hunger to enable mental and physical strength to reach a maximum. And number two, while cooking for Lord Jagannatha one should constantly remember His name, fame, pastimes, and qualities in a mood of devotion.” 

(BACK TO GODHEAD MAGAZINE ARTICLE) 

Dinatarini Devi. Yamuna Devi: A Life of Unalloyed Devotion: Part 2: Offering the Gift of Bhakti to Others (p. 336)