Palatable dishes (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"palatable dish" |"palatable dishes"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.43 -- London, July 30, 1973:

Viṣṇu will not accept anything from anyone unless he is devotee. And Viṣṇu is poverty-stricken that He has come to take from you? He cannot eat? He has no eating means? No. He agrees to accept our offering just on the basis of love. The Vaiṣṇava loves Viṣṇu, and Viṣṇu agrees to accept any foodstuff. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). That bhakti is main thing, not your palatable dish. Viṣṇu is quite competent to prepare thousand times better palatable dishes than you can offer. But the real thing is bhakti.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

The sense wants that... My eyes, it wants, "Oh, there is a beautiful girl. Let us see. Oh, I am hankering after it. I am following that beautiful girl." "Oh, there is very nice music. All right." Ear. "All right. Let us have it." "Oh, there is a very good restaurant, palatable dishes." Oh, tongue, tongue dictates, "Oh, you go there." Similarly, all our senses... This body means senses. Without senses, the body has no meaning. So our position is that eyes dragging to some place, ear dragging to some place, tongue dragging to some place, hand dragging to some place, leg dragging to some place. So we are perplexed. Now, we have to learn how to control these senses. That is called svāmī.

Lecture on BG 2.48-49 -- New York, April 1, 1966:

Now, you are doing everything. You are earning money; you are getting from the store; you are cooking. Everything... Nothing is stopped. Simply change your mentality, that everything is being done for God. It is not at all difficult. Simply we have to adopt it. We have to adopt it. So kṛpaṇāḥ phala-hetavaḥ. Now, if you think, "Oh, why...? I am earning for my palatable dishes. Why shall I offer it to God? This is there are so many, I mean to say, encumbrances. I am not going to do," then you become kṛpaṇa, miser. But if you be a brāhmaṇa... Brāhmaṇa means udāra, liberated, liberal, not liberated, liberal. The opposite word of kṛpaṇa is liberal. "I offer this body for the service of the Supreme." I become so liberal. Not for my sense enjoyment.

Lecture on BG 2.59-69 -- New York, April 29, 1966:

So śarīra abidyā-jāl, joḍendriya tāhe kāl, tā'ra madhye jihwā ati, lobhamoy sudurmati: "Amongst all the senses, the tongue is very avaricious." You see? It is, it is, it wants so many palatable dishes now and then. Tā'ra madhye jihwā ati, lobhamoy sudurmati: "And it is very difficult to control." Now, kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy: "So Kṛṣṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa, is so kind that in order to control my senses, tongue, first, He has given me so many nice foodstuff so that if I eat them, then my tongue will be controlled."

Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Simply you have nice foodstuff, palatable dishes. You can prepare palatable dishes for Kṛṣṇa. There are hundreds and thousands of preparation. But as soon as you prepare for yourself or you try to satisfy your tongue, then you are bound up by the laws of nature. Anything. Because that is sinful. Sinful. If you do not acknowledge, if you do not acknowledge the authority, if you do not feel your gratitude for the supplier, then you are a thief. Especially it is mentioned. "It is thief." I am taking your things, I am eating, but I am not feeling any gratitude for you, then I am a thief.

Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:

In the jungle wherever there is a tiger, all animals will go away. They will also try to protect themselves, self-protection. So rarely, when he's too hungry, then God gives him a chance to pounce upon another animal. A tiger cannot get to many palatable dishes daily. Oh. It is in human form of life. If we misuse, then we are... You see? We have got all facilities and if we misuse it, then go to the tiger life. Be very strong with pouncing capacity. That's all.

Lecture on BG 3.31-43 -- Los Angeles, January 1, 1969:

Regulating, how can you regulate the senses? Not by artificial means. The yoga practice, of course, is meant for controlling the senses but nobody can practice in this age perfectly yoga, neither one can control the senses. But this is practically. Just like our sense, tongue. We want to taste very palatable dishes. Now you supply palatable Kṛṣṇa prasādam. You forget going to hotel immediately. This sort of process is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We don't simply prohibit that "You don't do this," but we supply something which is engaged by the senses and the mind, the intelligence, so that you do not require to be engaged otherwise.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

Kṛṣṇa says, yat karoṣi yaj juhoṣi yad aśnāsi yat tapasyasi kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam (BG 9.27). Kṛṣṇa says, "Whatever you do," yat karoṣi, "it doesn't matter what you are doing." Kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam: "The result you give Me." Now, suppose you are working, you are getting, say, hundred dollars. You give it to Kṛṣṇa. That is service. The practical example is that these European, American boys, they are all qualified, but they have dedicated their life to Kṛṣṇa. They are working, and we are collecting also thousands and thousand of dollars daily, but we are spending for Kṛṣṇa. This is service. You can see by their practical example. They can earn daily hundreds of dollars, but they are not demanding any very comfortable place to sit down or to lie down or to have some palatable dishes. Whatever is Kṛṣṇa's prasādam, they are accepting, and they are living in any condition of life.

Lecture on BG 4.11-12 -- New York, July 28, 1966:

We don't ask you to have some troublesome or laborsome gymnastic. No. You simply come and hear, and this hearing, it is followed by nice music and singing. And beginning with music, ending with music, everyone will like it. And we have no means... Of course, whatever means I have got, I am distributing little fruit. But the process is—Lord Caitanya, who introduced this process—after this termination of this performance of chanting and reciting, distribution of prasādam, nice palatable dishes for eating. So Bhagavad-gītā says, su-sukham: "This is a process is very palatable and very pleasurable and very easy." And still, you get Kṛṣṇa.

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

If for your own eating you prepare very nice dishes, and because Kṛṣṇa says, "I will be satisfied with leaf and fruits," so you supply Kṛṣṇa, "All right, sir. You take leaf and fruit. And for me, I shall take these palatable dishes," no. Kṛṣṇa is very, I mean to say, intelligent also. He is more intelligent than... Then you are cheating Him. It is for the, I mean to say, poorest man. If you have got means...

Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:

And bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt (BG 3.13). And who is cooking for himself very palatable dishes, he is bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā. He is simply eating sins, and he has to suffer. Therefore we have to eat, we have to work, we have to do everything only for yajñāya, not for any other purpose.

Lecture on BG 4.27 -- Bombay, April 16, 1974:

So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says this body is the network of ignorance, simply sense gratification. "I shall eat this. I shall eat that. I shall hear this. I shall..." The ear is engaged in hearing nice cinema songs, and the tongue is engaged, going to the restaurant, so many so-called palatable dishes. Similarly, other senses, they are engaged. So the... According to bhakti-yoga system, the first control is recommended to the tongue. That is said, that ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136).

Lecture on BG 6.1 -- Los Angeles, February 13, 1969:

Everything is there in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We want music, there is music. We want dancing, there is dancing. You can bring nice musical instruments, you can join. We distribute nice palatable dishes. So practically this is a system of recreation only. (laughter) Yes. If you seriously think, you'll find, this system, there is no labor at all. Simply recreation. Su-sukham (BG 9.2).

Lecture on BG 6.11-21 -- New York, September 7, 1966:

Without sarva-kāmebhyaḥ, without desiring for material sense gratification, I can desire so many things for Kṛṣṇa's service. There are so many things. And suppose... Just like take for example eating. Eating, we want palatable dishes. Very good. But you prepare the palatable foodstuff for Kṛṣṇa. For Kṛṣṇa you prepare hundreds of palatable... Don't think that "It is being prepared for me." Therefore one who prepares foodstuff for Kṛṣṇa, he has to take very precaution. You see? That it is being prepared for Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 6.16-24 -- Los Angeles, February 17, 1969:

Our purpose for inviting you in the love feast is that: replace Kṛṣṇa prasāda with your all nonsense foodstuff. They are not healthy. These are healthy food. Healthy food. Palatable, healthy food. So, eat Kṛṣṇa prasāda, nice prasāda. If your tongue wants some nice palatable dishes we can supply you hundreds, thousands, offered to Kṛṣṇa. Samosā and this sweet ball, rasagullā, so many things we can supply. You are not prohibited. But don't take too much. "Oh, it is very palatable, let me take one dozen of rasagullā." No, don't take that. (laughs) Then that is not good. That is greediness. You should simply take so much as will keep your body fit, that's all.

Lecture on BG 9.20-22 -- New York, December 6, 1966:

Now, the materialist says, "All right, you do not know whether you are going or not. You are giving up this material enjoyment. You are simply living on cāpāṭis. Oh, we have got so many palatable dishes, and you are not enjoying this. You are fool." So to these poor devotees who are taking cāpāṭis, the Lord says a very nice thing. What is that?

ananyāś cintayanto māṁ

ye janāḥ paryupāsate

teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ

yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

(BG 9.22)

Well, materialist, Mr. materialist, you have to work very hard. But here the assurance is from the Lord that "Those who are unflinching and cent percent devoted in the transcendental service of Me, for them I take charge of the maintenance, all comforts." Nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22).

Lecture on BG 9.26-27 -- New York, December 16, 1966:

Now, the Lord Kṛṣṇa says that "Anyone who offers Me in devotion these four things," patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam, "a bit of leaf and a bit of flower, a little fruit and little water..." So He is pleased to take, accept. Why? Because we are offering Him with devotion and love. That is the only way. Just like if you offer me varieties of foodstuff and very palatable dishes, but if I am not hungry, then all these palatable dishes and varieties of foodstuff is useless. I cannot accept anything. Similarly, if you offer anything to the Supreme Lord, He is full. He does not require your offering. He is always being served by hundreds and thousands of goddess of fortune. Lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānam (Bs. 5.29). We are, in the material world, we are seeking the favor of goddess of fortune, but in the spiritual world, hundreds and thousands of the goddess of fortunes, they are eagerly trying to serve the Supreme Lord. So He is full. He has nothing to accept from you. But He likes that you should offer Him something.

Lecture on BG 9.26-27 -- New York, December 16, 1966:

Otherwise if you have got means, oh, you should prepare very nice foodstuff for the Lord. At Vṛndāvana in India there are temples still. They are spending thousands and thousands of rupees for palatable foodstuff, offering to the Deity. And those foodstuff are distributed to the, I mean to say, devotees. Not only devotees, even nondevotees come and take because by eating, one shall be devotee. Nobody shall eat... If I ask somebody, "Please come and hear Bhagavad-gītā," oh, he may not agree. But if I offer some palatable dishes, foodstuff, kṛṣṇa-prasāda, oh, everyone will accept. Everyone will accept. So that is one of the process of devotional service, that we should offer very sumptuously to the Lord, and the prasāda should be distributed.

Lecture on BG 9.26-27 -- New York, December 16, 1966:

If you want to work, well, work day and night, but you work for Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you don't work, if you are simply eating, if your father has got money and you are eating, oh, eat for Kṛṣṇa. What is that? You offer the same to Kṛṣṇa and eat palatable dishes. Kṛṣṇa will not take away your dishes. Simply offer it. Yad aśnāsi (BG 9.27). Yaj juhoṣi.

Lecture on BG 10.4 -- New York, January 3, 1967:

You can eat. You can go to a restaurant and have very palatable dishes of meats and so many things. But you have to control it: "No. I shall not eat all this nonsense. I shall eat only kṛṣṇa-prasādam." Eating is not prohibited because without eating you cannot live. That's all right.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

That is already explained. I, the other day: nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. You eat in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Just like here, in this temple, what we are doing? We are also cooking. Others are also cooking at house. Then what is the difference? The difference is that we are cooking for Kṛṣṇa; others, those who have no Kṛṣṇa consciousness—I don't say everyone—they are cooking for themselves. Just like the hotel. In a hotel they are cooking for the customer palatable dishes. So that is the difference. But Rūpa Gosvāmī says that "Dovetail with Kṛṣṇa consciousness." That is yukta vairāgya.

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

We have to satisfy our tongue, our senses, but not for indriya prītiḥ. We should eat for living nicely, not for palatable dishes. So many animal killing, unnecessary. Why? Kṛṣṇa has given you so many nice thing—rice, wheat, sugar, milk, fruit, flower, vegetable, and with milk you can get ghee, and you can prepare hundreds and thousands of preparation and offer to Kṛṣṇa and take it. Why should you kill so many animals and maintain slaughterhouse for the satisfaction of the tongue? Therefore here it is said, kāmasya, we have some demand for maintaining the body, but not for sense gratification.

Lecture on SB 1.2.15 -- Los Angeles, August 18, 1972:

A cat is coming to eat some milk here; you chastise, you... But again it comes, again it comes. Because it is animal. And the difference between animal and man is... Suppose there is very palatable dish. So man, unless he is offered, although he is greedy, although he is hankering after that food, but he's awaiting the invitation, "Yes, you can take." But cats and dogs, without invitation, catches. That is the difference between the man and animal. Animal cannot control; man can control. Although he is hungry, he can control, out of civility: "How can I taste without invitation?" So that is the difference. Therefore, the conclusion is, man's life is meant for control. Not like animal: "I want to eat, immediately catch it."

Lecture on SB 1.5.13 -- New Vrindaban, June 16, 1969:

If you want to have very palatable dishes, then you require ghee. Without ghee, you cannot make. Either sweetball or kacuris, srngara,(?) so many nice things. So we require sweetball. So... And in India, of course, they wanted palatable dishes, but not otherwise it is made of ghee. But too much eating of these palatable dishes is not good. That makes our senses very strong. So we should not take much of it, but we can take something of kṛṣṇa-prasādam and satisfy ourself.

Lecture on SB 1.15.35 -- Los Angeles, December 13, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa is omnipotent, He can accept your service by presenting Himself in His form. But Kṛṣṇa can do that, that is His omnipotency. Otherwise why Kṛṣṇa will say patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati tad aham aśnāmi: (BG 9.26) "If somebody gives me something to eat, it doesn't matter very valuable, very palatable dishes. It doesn't matter. Even patraṁ puṣpam, little flower, little fruits which any poor man can collect"? Just like if you are very, very poor man, you have nothing to offer to Kṛṣṇa, but you want to offer something. So Kṛṣṇa says, "All right. Offer Me a little fruit, little flower."

Lecture on SB 3.26.5 -- Bombay, December 17, 1974:

People say that you become desireless. That is impossible. How we can become desireless? That is the life, to desire. The desire has to be purified. That is wanted. That purified means in spite..., instead of desiring a very nice dress for yourself, when you desire the nice dress for Kṛṣṇa, this is purified. This is purified. Instead of desiring yourself to eat very nice palatable dishes, if you offer Kṛṣṇa nice palatable dishes, then you become desireless. This is desireless.

Lecture on SB 3.26.5 -- Bombay, December 17, 1974:

So you will not be bereft of the prasāda. Whatever you offering to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is so kind, He will eat, and He will leave it again, the same, very tasteful. And you will eat it, and you become spiritualized. Kṛṣṇa is not hungry, that because you will give Him very palatable dishes, He will eat everything. He is self-sufficient. He is being offered such nice dishes by many thousands of goddess of fortune, including Rādhārāṇī, and so He has no need for your nicely prepared foodstuff. But He is so kind that He comes to accept it just to deliver you. Take it like that. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 3.26.28 -- Bombay, January 5, 1975:

Everything belongs to God, and you can use it for the service of God. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam. This is the instruction, Vedic instruction. You can use it as prasādam, but everything should be offered to the Supreme. Yajñārthe karmaṇaḥ loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). If you do not do that, if you engage yourself always in good activities, as the karmīs they do, and earn money and use it for your own sense gratification, that is pāpa activity.

yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo

mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ

bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā

ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt

(BG 3.13)

"Those who are cooking in the kitchen very palatable dishes for satisfying the tongue, they are simply eating sinful things." Ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- London (Tittenhurst), September 13, 1969:

Now when the man visited the prostitute's house, she received the man. In India it is system that when you receive a gentleman or lady you must give him sumptuously to eat. So there was many palatable dishes served to the man, and each vegetable and each preparation was put in two pots—one in iron pots and one in golden pots. So he was eating. Now this man asked the prostitute, "Well, you have given me the same preparation in two pots: one in gold pot and one in iron pot. Why? What is the idea?" So she said that "First of all taste it. Then I shall disclose what is the idea." So he was tasting, eating. Then the prostitute asked him, "How do you like?" "Oh, it is very nice." "Then, is there any different taste in the golden pot?" "No. Same taste." "And the iron pot?" "Oh, the same taste." So she replied at that time that "You are so rascal that you want to gratify your senses, but you do not know that sense gratification in poor wife or rich wife is the same. There is no difference of taste, so why you are after a woman by paying this one hundred thousands of jewels?" The idea is... This story is very instructive, and it is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The idea is the same thing... (break) ...sense gratification is the ultimate aim of life, then why so much hard trouble for decorating the process of sense gratification? Why wasting so much time for decorating?

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:

Material enjoyment means eating, sleeping, mating and defending. You can make these four principles in different varieties or different grades, but these are the principles of material enjoyment. A dog is eating; you are also eating. So your eating and dog's eating, difference is that a dog can eat even stool, but you cannot. But you cannot. You have to arrange for palatable dishes just befitting human consumption. So there, there are different kinds of eating. But the eating principle is there, that's all. One is satisfied with stool-eating, and one is satisfied by eating kṛṣṇa-prasādam. That is the difference.

Lecture on SB 5.6.5 -- Vrndavana, November 27, 1976:

Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa yantra-dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). By the superior arrangement, according to my karma I get a body with varieties of kāma, krodha, moha, like that. Kāma, because somebody has got the body of a human being, his kāma, desires, are different from the hogs and pigs because he has got a different body. He has got also kāma, and the human body, he has human being, he has got also kāma. But one is desiring to have a very palatable dish, and the other is desiring stool. The different..., according to the bodies the desires are (indistinct)-less. So conclusion is that when you get your spiritual body then the desire will be different.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- New York, August 1, 1971:

We are eating; we are not fasting. We are eating. But we are eating just to maintain the body and soul together, not extravagantly. Although we have very nice plates, kṛṣṇa-prasādam, but we do not make any palatable dishes for enjoyment. We make all nice things for Kṛṣṇa, and we take prasādam. Therefore the material effect of eating, it does not act upon the devotees.

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- Honolulu, May 31, 1976:

So nature's law is so perfect. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). You cannot escape. Suppose you can eat two ounce, and if you eat four ounce, then you have to starve three days. This is the law. "There's some very palatable dishes. Now eat, let me eat it to my satisfaction," and you'll overeat. No. The nature's law is that you have to starve for three days. Next eating will be after three days.

Lecture on SB 7.6.17-18 -- New Vrindaban, July 1, 1976:

We have been habituated since time immemorial, many life after many life, simply for sense gratification. It is not very easy to give up the idea. Therefore śāstra says even if you have got idea of sense gratification, still you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don't try it otherwise. Just like the devatās. They have got facilities for all sense gratification. Sense gratification means udara-upastha-jihvā, jihvā, this tongue and the belly and the genitals. This is the prime sense gratificatory sources. Very palatable dishes, fill up the belly as much as possible, and then enjoy sex. This is material. In the spiritual world these things are absent. In the material world these things are very prominent.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 6, 1968:

So God is always anxious of your love, not your material things. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has described that as somebody offers you very nice, palatable dishes, varieties of foodstuff, but unfortunately, if you have no appetite, these are all useless because you cannot eat, there is no appetite, similarly, you can make a show of offering so many things to God, but if you have no devotional love, that is not accepted. That is not accepted because God is not poor. He is not begging from you.