Through some coincidences in my life, I had the opportunity to visit the Iskcon Hare Krishna Temple in Vrindavan. As a kid and even later, I have visited the Hare Krishna Temple in Bombay very often.
I always used to like the devotional atmosphere of the Hare Krishna Temple in Juhu and would always look forward to go there. I also used to like the prasadam they served there and the prasad had a diffferent quality to it, which is very rare these days.
My visit to the Iskcon Hare Krishna Temple in Vrindavan again left me in great awe. The temple is charged with a lot of positive energies of love, devotion. Instantly it can uplift anyone.
My evenings in Vrindavan for the few days that I was there, would be to take part in the devotional singing and chanting of hymns and aarti later.
Later we would go for dinner in the Krishna restaurant. I was amazed to see the simple variety of food both continental and indian food offered on their menu.
The food is simple, down-to-earth, tastes great and thoroughly enjoyable. They also serve hot milk with honey. I have never tasted such a kind of milk. It was sweet even without the honey and was simply out of the world. My personal feeling is that they must be lovingly and compassionately taking care of the cows in their gaushalas. The cows must be feeling loved, hence the milk it gives had the quality of love in it.
Even the milk sweet prasadam they serve in the temple, is really good. Whatever food they offer or serve in their restaurants, is first offered to Lord Krishna and then served to the people. They also prepare the food with a lot of devotion and love for Lord Krishna. Hence the food is infused with love energy. Also, since the prasad is first offered to Lord Krishna, it then is known as the mahaprasad as it has Lord Krishna’s blessings and energy in it.
The food, I have had in all the Iskcon Temples have a different quality to it. This food is not only for the body, but it also subtly affects the mind, heart and soul of the person who receives the mahaprasad.
The food made in the Isckon temples are sattvic and they do not use any onions or garlic. They have many sites and blogs where they share their recipes. They also have great vegan recipes. Some of the websites are:
I hope you enjoy making the recipes with love, compassion, devotion and care as much as I enjoyed making some of them.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Hare Krishna! Dassana, thanks for sharing this. Yes, the maha-prasadam in ISKCON temples is one-of-a kind! They have so many other nice recipe sites and cookbooks as well. In addition to the websites you’ve mentioned, there is also Total Veg (http://totalveg.com), Cooking with Kurma (http://kurma.net) and Kurma’s Blog (http://iskcon.net.au/kurma), Pure Vege by Laksmi (http://purevege.com), and the Krishna.com Food Channel (http://food.krishna.com), amongst many others. There are also the cookbooks by Kurma Dasa – a world-renowned chef and cooking class teacher, Adiraja Dasa, and Yamuna Devi Dasi – an award-winning author, amongst others, which are super-excellent and give a nice wide variety of pure vegetarian foods. These recipes have no meat, fish, eggs, alcohol, caffeine, onion, or garlic, and are very healthful and nutritious for the body. All recipes are lacto-vegetarian, and many can be easily converted to vegan recipes for those who don’t take milk products. The Higher Taste is an excellent reference as well, which discusses the reasons for taking vegetarian food and especially Krishna prasadam as well as having a variety of excellent vegetarian recipes. Several of these books and websites also instruct on how to prepare and offer the food to Krishna in a devotional mood with love, to infuse even our home food with that divine mercy, Krishna’s blessings, and that devotional loving energy that makes the Hare Krishna food so special.
thanks S for all the info. i know about kurma & lakshmi’s blog. i will check out total veg and krishna food channel. never heard about these two. i have adiraja dasa’s cookbook. will also buy yamuna devi dasi and kurma dasa’s cook book in some time. i know the excellent vegetarian recipes that are made in the iskcon temples as well served in their cafetarias. simply love the devotional energy in the temples as well as in the food.
great veggie food
thanks
after viewing all these thing all i can say its beautiful
hare krishna hare krishna, krishna-krishna hare-hare……….
hare rama hare rama, rama-rama hare-hare……
jai shree krishna
Radhey radhey
jay sree krisn nam prabhu ka
Hare Krishna, Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
hare krishna
Dear I am happy to see your article. I become a Krishna devotee and I often say in my mind the Maho mantra. I had nirvana and become Vienna Meher Baba after the life as Avatar Meher Baba and the 32. reincarnation of Jesus but I have problems to spread those happy news so it can come to a fall of Holly spirit over Mankind. That will make happy most of people but I have problems to do it … I do not speak and my E-mil do not work Good . In this life I am specially for love to God and teaching of Sri Srimad Baktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I will be happy if You can help me spread those news about Jesus ,Meher Baba and now me to some 100000 people . Wish You all the best Yours Vienna Meher Baba
Please do not make false claims about who you are, and especially please don’t spam others’ blogs with irrelevant posts like this! Who is God or His avatara (form) is given in the scriptures. Krishna is given in the authoritative Vedic literatures as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no mention of Meher Baba or “Vienna Meher Baba” in these literatures. And the goal of life is not mere nirvana; rather, beyond that, one should be Krishna conscious. It is very nice, however, that you have chanted the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, which gives devotion to Sri Krishna. You should also read the Bhagavad Gita As It Is and other such books to understand the real truth.
In any case, this is not a blog about religion, theology, or philosophy of any kind, but rather of vegetarian recipes of India. This is not the place for discussion about such topics, nor of making false claims about one’s own alleged spiritual identity. Please do not spam, but do keep discussion on-topic!
shri radhe radhe
hare krishna..
Thank you prabhu for sharing all your nice experiences by you, really you blessed a lot. please pray for us to get a chance to it. HARE KRISHNA.
Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures of ISKCON at Vrindavan. I would like to go there someday.
hare krishna…………