I was invited in Butler, here also, by some churches, and they wanted to give me some food. So they asked me, "Swamiji, what do you desire to eat?" So I told them, "I eat... I am strictly vegetarian. I shall accept fruits and milk. That's all"

Expressions researched:
"I eat . . . I am strictly vegetarian. I shall accept fruits, vege . . . fruits and milk. That's all" |"I was invited in Butler, here also, by some churches, and they wanted to give me some food. So they asked me" |"So I told them" |"Swamiji, what do you desire to eat"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Suppose if you want me, to feed, give me some foodstuff, naturally you ask me, "Swamiji, what sort of foodstuff you'll like?" I have got experience here in your country. I was invited in Butler, here also, by some churches, and they wanted to give me some food. So they asked me, "Swamiji, what do you desire to eat?" So I told them, "I eat... I am strictly vegetarian. I shall accept fruits and milk. That's all." Similarly, if anyone invites somebody, it is natural that the guest is asked what sort of foodstuff he would like.

Lecture on BG 4.19-22 -- New York, August 8, 1966:

A devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he does not eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. Just like you take the remnants of your master. Just the servant takes the remnants after the master eats. In India the process is that husband and wife, that after the husband eats, the remnants are taken by the wife. The wife does not eat along with the husband. That is the old system. Now it is being changed. The husband and wife, they do not . . . the husband is supplied by the wife all kinds of good dishes, and when the husband is satisfied, some foodstuff is left, and that is taken by the wife.

So similarly, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he does not take anything, does not accept anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. This is the process. Because his life is full of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, you will find . . . suppose if you want to take things which has been eaten by Kṛṣṇa, then you have to ask Kṛṣṇa, "What do You desire to eat, Sir?"

Suppose if you want me to feed, give me some foodstuff, naturally you ask me, "Swāmījī, what sort of foodstuff you'll like?" I have got experience here in your country. I was invited in Butler, here also, by some churches, and they wanted to give me some food. So they asked me, "Swāmījī, what do you desire to eat?" So I told them, "I eat . . . I am strictly vegetarian. I shall accept fruits, vege . . . fruits and milk. That's all." Similarly, if anyone invites somebody, it is natural that the guest is asked what sort of foodstuff he would like.

Similarly, Kṛṣṇa, if you want to offer something Kṛṣṇa, you must know what sort of foodstuff He wants. How you will know? Kṛṣṇa is not just present in your front. How you will know that Kṛṣṇa wants this foodstuff? Oh, that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like you can understand what government expects from me, you can know from the law books, from the civil court, similarly, what Kṛṣṇa wants, it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says:

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ

yo me bhaktyā prayacchati

tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam

aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

(BG 9.26)

Now, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, He is not hungry. He is not hungry that I shall supply Him foodstuff, and therefore He will be maintained. It is not like that. But still, Kṛṣṇa says that patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati: "Any devotee, if he offers Me patram . . . patram means leaf. Puṣpam means flower. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalam. Phalam means fruit. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam. Toyam means milk or water. Generally, it is meant water.

Now, just see. To satisfy Kṛṣṇa is not very difficult thing. Even the poorest man in the world, he can satisfy Kṛṣṇa by these four items. Anyone can secure from any part of the world. It doesn't matter that because Kṛṣṇa was, I mean to say, Kṛṣṇa appeared in India, therefore He wanted Indian food. No. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam. Leaf and flower and fruit and water, oh, that is available in America, that is available in Czechoslovakia and Greenland—everywhere.