(12/18) Cook to Perfection

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa-Puja Adhivas, Tarakeswar,
Evening, 28 September 2019, part 12
Translated from Bengali

The main limbs of service are cooking and serving the Deities. Offering the Deities archan, dressing the Deities, cleaning the Deities' temple are all different kinds of service to the Deities. However, the main aspect of archan is cooking. Cooking is also part of archan, and it is actually its main part. If you can cook and feed the Lord nicely and timely, it brings happiness to Lord Krishna. It is necessary to know what Krishna likes. What does your guru like? If you do not have any relationship with your guru, how will you know it? If the wife loves her husband (if she is a real wife), she knows what her husband likes to eat. So, what does the Lord like to eat? What does your guru like to eat? If you do not have any relationship with them, how will you know these things? You only take the mantra from your guru and go away – at home you just carry on your life offering some flowers to your guru. This is not how it works. It is necessary to have a relationship with the guru.

If you cook anyhow just to get the chore done – some preparation has too much salt, some preparation has too little salt, something got scorched, something has less spices, etc. – the Lord will not be satisfied eating such cooking. When you cook well, then every morsel will be relishable.

Cooking service is extremely important. We must give importance to cooking. It is important to have a special regard towards the bhoga-mandir of Sri Govindaji, Sri Jagannath and Sri Nathdvar.

It is necessary to clean and keep the kitchen neat. The offering should be arranged nicely. At the same time, you can make an offering on a golden plate, but the Lord will even be able to try what you have cooked. What is the use of your golden plate then? But if you cook nicely, you can offer even just one leaf, but the Lord will take it happily.

Generally, we see that people take the footdust of those who worship the Deities, who recite mantras, ring the bell, etc., but those who have some spiritual acumen know that cooks are greater servitors. Cooking service is much greater than reciting praises. The value of cooking service is much more than the value of the pujari's service. The golden crown of the Lordship glitters in all directions of the temple with its electric light, but nobody pays attention to the daily meals of the Lord. This is not proper service. The Lord's main place is the bhoga-mandir. You must pour out your mind, your soul into cooking bhoga of the Lord – cooking should be done privately, secretly, nobody should see it. It is necessary to immerse yourself into such meditation, into such service.

In terms of service value, after cooking comes the service of dressing the Deities. When you put a garland on the Deities, people see it and shower you with praise, but nobody sees the cooking service. Those who help the cooks are also benefitted. You can do the shopping and buy good products, but you do not cook the preparations well – everything is then in vain. Therefore, it is necessary to do the cooking service very attentively and timely.

Have you listened attentively to it?

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 40 Mb
Length: 83 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Disciple's Dependence
2) How Does Devotion Come?
3) Indispensability of Guru's Mercy
4) Stop Threshing the Husk
5) Disciples' Hypocrisy
6) Strong Desires, Wrong Desires
7) Identifying Yourself with Kirtan
8) Patience Is a Virtue
9) Internal Hypocrisy
10) Unhappy Mind
11) Kirtan Is Not a Show
12) Cook to Perfection
13) Install Gurudev in Your Heart
14) Submission without Resistance
15) Service Is Not a Rite
16) Vaishnavs' Ornaments vs Demons' Ornaments
17) Vaikuntha Vani
18) Absolute Self-Submission