Glimpse into Gauranga’s favorite cuisine given by Srila Prabhupada (video)

Welcome to your devotees thank you so much for joining us today we are on week three of our celebration we’ve been celebrating sri chaitin for these five weeks leading us into this wonderful gorpunima festival and today we are going to be discussing lord gauranga’s favorite cuisine from none other than our [Music] thank you so much for being willing to join us today and take us into this era of you actually cooking for srila prabhupada and learning these wonderful recipes from so many different people so many of your teachers you’re going to tell us about it’s such an honor to welcome you on this platform for those who do not know shruti rupavu shruti rupa prabhu has lived a life of devotion she joined the movement as a young teenage girl and was so dedicated in her service that she personally was uh she had the privilege and honor of cooking for sheriff and serving shiva prabhupada for an extended period of time she learned different cuisines she adapted to what shiloh but liked how he liked it uh what a wonderful example of dedication and service thank you so much for your life of devotion and for all your wonderful service we are so honored to welcome you on this platform and for you to share with us uh you know memories of srila prabhupada related to cooking and lord gauranga’s favorite cuisine thank you so much thank you dear devotees for um attending today and I think the this platform the gbc spt for facilitating this because there’s nothing more dear I mean I’m not one to generally come out and speak but this subject matter today is so dear to my heart the the prashadam from the sisi sheila prabhupada pishima jamuna my teachers um there’s nothing that gives me more joy so I hope that I can give you a glimpse into that and inspire you um in your daily lives of the treasure that’s actually in the che chaney charter reta and prashadam because prashadam is our ticket back home so wonderfully put there yeah we are a kitchen movement like shiloh but used to me sometimes in lectures he would um say that you so and so had come from prashad from eating prashad eating prashad and he would look at different devotees remember when he came to miami he was saying how everyone has come for prashad and um temple president was there and he said in you too abhiram you came from prashad so so many of us are attracted to it and it’s such a vehicle for um for us especially in this day and age because of our you know dullness and qual and you know lack of qualities that this gift of prashad immediately catapults our spiritual life it awakens it like that and prabhupad would say that lord caitanya actually didn’t um speak in public philosophy he only chanted had kirtan in gay prashad and um the purport of that is a prophet would say that one when you speak philosophy one can actually forget it when they go away but the prashadam immediately ignites their spiritual life it’s not to say that we shouldn’t speak philosophy obviously we do and preach and things but it’s such a um it is our secret weapon and you know we ta for me I should say me take it for granted you know the eating but actually the power of it and the significance of it and this is what lord caitanya preached and this is what prabhupad um also you couldn’t you couldn’t leave prabhupad’s quarters or leave pearl but without him making sure that you’ve got something he would have either a guard at the door with a jar of sweets his servant passing them out in the room you know there’s so many so many so many stories but it was part of our daily um activity that we would always have something in a jar for prague to distribute when any guest came and the bengali culture honestly that is you you experience india and I remember in the old days when we went to pour your around bengal um because I lived in calcutta in mayapur as a young girl and uh strangers would just invite straight I mean total strangers invite you into your their home and offer you a seat then it would off you would always get water but you’d always get a sweet you couldn’t you couldn’t the sweet is part of that bengali culture so much to dive into here today I’m not really sure where we should begin with the culture or the the cooking or we’re just hoping that you open your treasures chest we see the wealth that you have been uh so poorly storing we see we’re gonna I’m just so eager to see whatever you have to share and I’m sure you’re one of her guests is mentioning the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach such a fashion krishna also the way the way the christians also is making the things that he likes so that that’s our goal beautiful beautiful so tell us a little bit about mother shutter tell us a little bit about uh you know the cuisine that’s mentioned in the charitamrita well there’s you know if you go into the story in the um in the cc about uh advaitacharya’s time with lord italian lord john it describes in their preparation by preparation the bengali’s there but then the transliteration you can see and then the story with um rug of a pundit and damianty there’s so many stories I mean I have here you know some the descriptions the names names of them and it and this is in the angelila and it just says it describes this is with rugged pundit and damianty where the uh I just put some verses up here right here there and it describes there that they’re unparalleled and what she did was she she would make for lord caitanya um preparations that would last for a year she and they’re in these bags of rag of a pundit were very famous and I mean just imagine so she would dehydrate dry and the spicing and she would think of it for his health for she thought he’d be eating so much because people would be wanting to be feeding him and so she would [Music] right right she would be thinking of his digestion and so there are so many preparations that are described in there with the ginger the anise the coriander um you know and then the dried bitters you dry the bitter leaves of nim dry the the corella and these bags will travel with lord caitanya and I encourage um I encourage everyone to read these chapters re read these parts of the cc because it’s not so and it’s not that it’s just for inspiring them you can take this up but you you see you see the the relationships you see the the pastimes of the lord and um this is what’s so so thrilling for me when I was a young devotee waited and we were all waiting for the cc to come out volume by volume by volume and I can remember each time a volume would come I’d literally sit there for to ever have non-stop no matter how many days it would take to um get through this and I realized the early on that this is the culture that I want to be part of these are the personalities that I want to know I mean they were so rich and deep with relationship this this the chi chandra charitamrita is full of relationships and um the personal side of our philosophy and it’s so rich um so that’s that’s that’s just another part of it and it’s described prophet describes it’s the cream it’s the cream and then there are quotes for bhakti-sadanta if there were no no books left it would be the cc has everything and um so I don’t know for for me that that it was the richness of of the relationships and the exchanges and lord caitanya’s mercy that is so so easily available to everyone that this to me this should be the literature that we all just dive into and embrace and read but along different lines so one of those preparations in there that you just had up damianty was describing the coriander the dunya and soft fennel and they call it anise in the transliteration and just to show you how easy some of these are just by reading them I made yesterday just to show you I had some sugar syrup in the refrigerator but these are so this is like what would go in rug of a pundits bags these are little balls of um dried fennel and um coriander put in a chinny ross a sugar syrup and this was what aid digestion this would a you know stomach so these are the kind of things you thought about and they are so wonderful they you know they don’t look so attractive but I remember once um I also after prophet left I became tumul krishnamaj’s personal cook for um two years so I lived in dallas and um I actually before I went to dallas he came to l.a because after profit left I uh we moved to los angeles and um at that time jamuna was doing all the researching for lord christian’s cuisine and I was doing recipe testing for her at that point she was studying all the all the dishes in the chaitanya chartrem rita and this one really attracted my attention because it’s rather simple to do and so I remember when he came um he came to visit in los angeles and he had some um other of his friends with them and I made these and they were literally rolling on the floor tasting these because enter into the mood that this is what the lord likes and you’re so close to it and there it is in written form and then the descriptions of it and how they when I told them the story I mean they were such an ecstasy that I used to make these and send them to him along with his travels he insisted with them so it was kind of like playing on with the bags of rug upon it but I encourage everyone it’s in the ancillary one what was it verse 22 I think it was so yeah it’s antholia chapter 10 it starts from verse 15 onwards describes it and I’m not sure if you put and so then you know we all know of lord caitanya loving sock and you know I think I think devo you know our western culture I think because I myself thought it until I lived in india you know we think of spinach as sak but actually sock is any green leafy vegetable so you have hui sock mooli sock pollock sock you have methi sock those are all different um types of greens and it describes in there when lucha johnny was going through the jar kunda forest that you know the devotees would um take they would walk they would wild crap they would go in and pick you know the wild greens so it wasn’t just the spinach that we know it was any greens so in that way you know that’s why he described he loved all these socks and he described him as even the bitters it was described in there that lord j johnny thought they were sweeter than nectar and um and then if you I think on there too you have some recipes if you can show that they’re that’s mentioned in the cc that the bagan that’s mentioned in there lafra is mentioned in there and I pulled all these from um jamuna from her cookbook right right right we have we have some of those um did you just see where are they yeah so this is the coconut oil sweet that’s the one that prabhupad had taught when he first came um was a very simple sweet um that was with coconut and I think it has a little camp camphor and cardamon but specific and that’s also mentioned there’s so many preparations in the cc with coconut um that’s part of our there I think is the um uh the shukda so there’s a nice recipe there and then it speaks in in she put these together from you know studying the cc um this is mother jamuna put them together these are these are jamuna recipes and then if you see I put up there another one of the la for that was also that these these these preparations are even mentioned in songs the bengali songs about lord chitani that one there is a nim bacon so you would take the nim leaves and it describes damianty powdering these nem leaves and sun down and even with frau pad um because bitter bitter is such a um important part of the bengali cuisine bitter ayurvedically is um it tells the stomach that food is coming so it creates digestive juices and things so usually a bitter is taken at the beginning of um of a meal and I know with prabhupada as soon as the plate would go down he would first thing he would say is where’s the bitter and I’d usually put that on the tally in the very front of the plate because that’s what he’d begin with but that had mandatory I mean it had to be there every single day and when brahma traveled to the west you know in the early days a lot of devotees weren’t familiar or it wasn’t so much available that that he would request his cook to dehydrate to dry some corella and put it on the roof in india and that would travel with him and so he could always have corella on a daily basis and um I myself didn’t experience but um dina tarnay prabhu both told me that they’d been up on the roof and seen prague himself dehydrating he’d be there squatted down and laying the corella out on a sheet this was in bombay and so he could take on his on his travels so that’s how integral and how important it is in the um in the bengali cuisine and I can recall in the early days it was always said that that it’s an acquired taste but I remember from the first time I ever ever I was living in calcutta temple and the first time I tasted it I I was in love I was in love with and a lot of devotees who didn’t like it they’d all bring it to me and I’d sit down at the end and have my little pile of corella and now eat it but it is certainly I didn’t have to acquire that taste there was something that I was relishing and um I think once you’ve got a one lifetime thing it’s probably lifetimes of thing that I can’t say but I truly do find it is as wonderful as nectar I do love it this is the truth but let me take you back in a little bit uh we have devotees here they’re all very curious about all of these recipes and you know we showed a few glimpses they want to know a little bit more about the book and the recipes and cook well jamuna’s book I mean it’s called lord christian’s cuisine and that can still be purchased on amazon but um it’s also now in the last year it’s come out on kendall kindle I think that’s how you say it kindle so you can have it on your computer so anybody around the world can have it and I I highly highly encourage anyone who doesn’t have it um to to go on amazon and yeah lord christian’s cuisine and you can get it on kindle or and it’s it’s the text it’s a bible I mean it’s textbook um quality it takes you from beginning to end and most of the recipes in there are ones that personally ralph had personally taught her or she personally cooked for pearl pud or they were taught by pishima to jumuna or she researched recipes at the chaichani church I mean it is it is definitely a phd in education of um of our rich culture and cuisine and it’s a book that you really live without if you want to conserve the lord yes we have that flashing on our screen lord krishna’s cuisine and uh thanks to our wonderful shamu sakhi on the tech she has it up here on the screen for anybody take a look on amazon on kindle and wonderful recipes right from sri caitanya charitable in 1976 when myself and polika were cooking for paul but and she came to speak to prabhupad about the book at that time and he so much encouraged her to write it and as I was researching for here in these recipes in the cc the prophet writes in one of the purports that the editors should learn these recipes and that these recipes should be a standard in our society so prophet even his purports was saying when there are these descriptions of these um dishes that were made for lord caitanya and there was one thing I wanted to just read here to you that lord caitanya from from these preparations that are described in a deutsche charlie’s house and if I encourage you to read this story too because it’ll just make you fall in love with you know the cooking the dishes and as the story goes just give you a glimpse he invited large italian lord nichinanda to come and eat and lord so tanya you know was wanting to eat simple and you know he wasn’t hungry and then so deutsche was saying oh they’re just simple we just made some simple rice and when he got there there were like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pots and all these dishes and all these dishes and so and what in his mind was thinking he’s done this for krishna he’s done this for his deities you know and so so he was willing to take it he wouldn’t take it you know if it was himself so so the the raksa goes on where lorchen chinese is eating little and adreichar is filling the pots and and lord nichinanda is complaining that I I came here starving and you’ve not even fed me my belly’s not even half full take this away and I mean it’s just exchanges and this is what I’m saying about the personal relationships and the the rasa that’s going on is just it just melts your heart and so then finally lord nichinanda in in the prep it describes its preparation the socks the sweets the everything that’s in there and then lar of lardness and under to to go on even further to say that he was angry and so he took rice and like threw it on the floor that he was angry and you know and not satisfied and a piece of rice went on uh deutsche chariot’s body and then began to dance like a madman from the epstein so that goes that goes on to describe and I encourage you to read that but the point here I want to get to after that that rasa going on with them lord caitanya says it says approved of all the methods employed in cooking and offering to krishna indeed he was so pleased that he said frankly I will personally take the lotus feet of anyone who can offer krishna such nice food and place those lotus feet on my head birth after birth I mean wow that’s not an invitation and inspiration in a door that is so attainable I mean that’s the beauty of this spiritual life that we’ve been given is that it’s actually simple but somehow other I would make it complicated and it’s by I mean who who develops love of god by eating and dancing and singing you know this is the process that prophet gave us so in lord shaitania absolutely confirms this so this is what we have to do learn how to make these things and and I know I’m not I’m not up here you know speaking hey everybody needs to do this because I myself you know it’s simple and I can be vegan here or you know eat raw here or whatever but I have to say I’m moving more back into these dishes as I’ve gotten older and my whole focus now is trying to understand these old ancient recipes and these recipes that have been forgotten and I’ve connected on social media with um people in south india that are from heritage they don’t want to lose the heritage of their uh culture and cuisine and I’m studying different and I’m just I’m over the moon thrilled because to eat these eat these dishes bring such pleasure so I encourage you know even just on sundays or you know for breakfast or for feast days or for special things you know to take up the book take up jonah’s book and make something make something that you know is pleasing pleasing to the lord there’s a story with um jumuno when pearl but I think it was in 69 I have it here in my uh my cookbook this is my original cookbook here that used some of those recipes that you saw these are my this is my small tattered but these are my notes when I traveled with prabhupada and I lived in india and learned from fishima and wrote but when I have some of jamuna’s stories in here and um this was a story in 1969 and she goes on to describe you know serving pearl pud um a whole tally and I mean she describes it very beautifully but prabhupad basically says he said to her um who has taught you to make these these preparations and she immediately said probably you have of course you have to say no no I did not teach you he said he said uh there are so many varieties he said when I left verndaven to preach in the western world I was prepared to eat only two things potatoes and bread he said I heard I understood that these two things were in the west potatoes and bread he said I never dreamed that my western boys and girls would learn these things he said it is all by the mercy of my spiritual master please continue to learn what krishna likes I like what likes thank you so beautiful beautiful from your entire talk you know there’s so many pastimes around prashadam whether it’s whether it’s krishna eating with the cowherd boys or you know mother you’re sure they’re cooking all these things itself so many pastimes around prashadam tell us one of your personal interactions with shirapragbad while cooking for him or serving him prashadam well you know um thinking about it since I want to lead into pishima too because she was so um important in my um cooking journey that I’ll I’ll lead into that one um because where I learned to cook truly I mean I began early if I just give you a little background um I started in 75 in verna under davey shakti probably she was prophet’s cook and she gave me entry into that world and once that door was open I was determined never to let it close it was maybe I can share a little picture of fishy my hair for our audience yes please do but pishima came after she probably came in 76. and this is fishima in the kitchen um and this is where in india it was you know we cooked on the floor and we did everything on the floor and I can share with you forgive me I’m getting I’m getting to your and then after pishima um when I came back I I’m um when jamuna came in 76 to speak to pearl but about the book and then when I went back to the state we’d cultivate a relationship and then she and dean and tarne probably were living in oregon I went there and stayed with them for some time and um so I’ve got my basics from pishima I lived in calcutta mayapur for two years and fishima home was in calcutta and then she’d come to mayapur when prabhupad was there also and so I would go to her home and study with her and then would probably come to calcutta she’d come to the temple and so my initial um cooking started there but then when I um got with jamuna in the west it totally you know blew the top off of um the basics that I had started with in these wonderful recipes from peachima um but jamuna took me to another level that um of creativity because like pishima jamuna never made the same thing twice I mean they’re they’re both in radharani’s camp um I don’t think she ever I never saw her in the two years make anything the same and um in my lifetime with you know the time that I knew jumuna and spent time with her and dean attorney and different places in the world she was the same so that ex that took that took me out of that comfort zone of a recipe and it had to be like this I mean I would send avarama to the store if I didn’t have the exact thing I need to call it and jamuna was like no it’s whatever’s here in the refrigerator whatever’s in the pantry and then she would create I mean it was like she could stand blindfolded backwards and just throw the things and I mean chapatis chapatis got elevated to a whole nother level I mean have you ever had sweet potato chapatis papaya chapatis pineapple potties I mean whatever was there she could turn it into a chapati she could turn it into the kitchen she could turn it into whatever so be able to live and witness that is what made me go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and um so I wanted to share with you some of the things that actually from prabhupad’s kitchen I have this this is called a sill butter wow there this is probably this was from his kitchen how do I end up with it is because when I went with him on that last trip in 77 to england if you can see this um so everything was ground you put water on it you grind every single thing from the dolls to the rice to the spices to the gingers to everything and so I would go in like two hours early before we began I would do breakfast but then after breakfast spend hour and 45 you know grinding everything and so when bishop would come in everything would be set up there’d be the ground paste of the ginger the ground prop but at that time when I was cooking it had changed from dry spices to everything wet spices paste because he said nothing was pure and he wanted everything pure and fresh so everything was ground to a paste so I’d soak overnight the pepper whole pepper corn smoke overnight the coriander seeds soak overnight the cumin seeds this was a daily thing even soaked dried turmeric which would take four or five days to soak and then soak the dolls because peaches are always cooked with these things called buddies there’s some you can either sun dry them or use them fresh if you they’re in the book and that’s bengali cooking um I’m sure every part of india has their version of what they do but my training was in bengali cooking and um and then as I you know met other um wonderful books I learned from some gujarati and you know so different things like this but um so that was a big part of it and um some of her audience here you know they might not even know who pashima is do you want to say a little bit if you can you show that picture again because absolutely physically is like a female version of when you see her face um you you you can pull up that photo yes I can give me a second ishima it’s actually her real name is um baba torini but pishima means auntie and she is prophet’s sister and so I mean to give you a little glimpse into who she was as a person is again it’s like a personality out of the chaichani church and that’s the only way I was able to understand her because she had she didn’t speak english and my pidgin bengali you know we would always you know I I could talk kitchen bengali and market bengali you know to shop and what what she didn’t understand or what I didn’t understand from her you know was done by facial or whatever but pishima was honestly another personality out of mahaprabhu’s pastimes and she knew the cc very well and I didn’t know that at the time but the way because of my reading the cc all before I met her because of her eccentric um her eccentric personality or I don’t know qualities I should say I wouldn’t say personality it’s almost like something that’s developed in life but um her qualities vaishnav qualities were truly out of the pages of the cc she always had a bottle of gangajal ganga tells the water and so she had um wherever she sat when she got up she threw gangajal if someone something she threw gangajal I remember once when I was at our house I was here with jamuna and polika when jimin was doing research and I had my camera and she had the childhood deities of hers and prowl puts there and she worshipped those childhood deities so they were upstairs and we went up and I was ringing the bell and seeing and I should she told her servant to go up there and take the gunga jaw and throw it on the um the rope where I ran the bell and then I was doing this with the camera she threw so much ganga jaw on my camera I didn’t think it would ever work again I mean this was like you know and and for me it would just make my heart swell because this this this person this person you know was so glorious and it was not something that I was used to or something that I understood but I accepted it as something from another from another realm and um so as far as you asked the story of prabhupada with the with the story I wanted to bring in peachima because it was an interesting story with her sitting there you have that mental picture of her sitting there pishima bengali cooking is very strong on mustard oil so impishima not like this rank you know low class thing I mean there is such fine muscle or it’s finer than ghee when you can you can get it I mean I was told that through bhagaji who prophet’s friend you may have heard about him and vern dab and up in the himalayas he said you can get very very fine mustard oil and jamuna tells a story I think um I think dina carne might tell that in her book where um when she was learning to cook from pishima in vrndavan when they were staying at radha damadar she said jamuna I don’t know how many umpteen times into the czar to get mustard on every time she rejected it so I think probably on the fifth day or whatever she said she would go and they went in and you know to find this finer muscle oil so at any rate she cooked with a lot of mustard oil and then it came to a point where probably wouldn’t let her use mustard oil but prophet is known to be saying if you want to cook for a taste you cook with mustard oil if you want to cook for health you cook with ghee well the things that when prophet came to calcutta she would always send things from home and I have to tell you what she sent from home never tasted like when she taught us because he obviously cooked with the mustard oil at home I mean they were they were like described in the cc I mean like nectar when she would make shukta at home it would send you flying but of course it was wonderful when she taught when she would come because we would cook with ghee but it was a whole it was a whole nother level and the first time I ever had I went to her house once to pick her up for roth yatra in calcutta she fed me um kitri and she made it with mustard oil and I’ve never had kitchen sense with mustard oil and it it blew the top off I mean I couldn’t believe the wonderful taste so at any rate long story short um we were in mayapur and um because we didn’t let her have muster oil she used a lot of mustard paste so I’m grinding on the stone all her paste massage she had a big you know bowl katori of mustard paste and she made sure that mustard paste went into everything the lafra the you know the vegetables the face so prabhupad was very sensitive to certain things and he complained to me over a couple of days that his hands were swelling and he blamed it on the mustard that peshima was cooking with and so after one day you know after this going on for a few days prophet said to me because after prophet would the other thing about prabhupada if you see that picture you did scan through it where prophet was sitting there at the radar temple eating prophet didn’t just I mean eat in the sense where we eat we talk we you know drive and we eat we you know what we watch a video or do whatever and eat this is not the process prophet honored eating he honored prasad he didn’t he didn’t have guests in there with him I mean there were occasions obviously where they were there um but he would honor prashant and it would take probably so there jamuna told me that picture back one that that was at radha damadar and that was she was that was his kitchen and eating area and just off to the side is where she would cook but he was sitting there meditating he was listening to the domestic and he was looking at at that time the samadhi rupa goswami was right outside that window and um that was prophet’s normal normal way of eating it was honoring and he was tasting and you could you could it was he was relishing is the word and you could see that it wasn’t an ordinary affair it wasn’t eating and rushing and if someone if someone had arrived he would give him something off his plate and just like nod his head so they would go he would give them something because he did not sit and talk and eat it was a meditation and it was honoring so but then my point being is so after he finished eating he would sit there while you clean the his his chonky and put all he would take all the katori’s off and empty him so he would sit there and usually with the toothpick he’d pick and he’d watch you and you’re sitting there with head down because you know he’s staring right through you and you’re putting everything back together to to clean up and so this one day he’s sitting there and he’s watching me and he says do not let her back in the kitchen and I cut my eyes I mean I thought the eyes went in the back of my head you know I couldn’t imagine life without pishima in the kitchen and jishima was still in love with pralpad and so devoted to bravopod um I mean it would have sent her you know I don’t know what so he said do not let her back in the kitchen he said she’s killing me you know and if anybody heard that today god knows where that story would go he said she’s like with these mustard seeds and so the mustard and um he said do not let her back in the kitchen so I was like my head was I was having three thousand thoughts and my head was just spinning and I just cleaned up everything so the and so and bishop would come like clockwork every every day for lunch unless unless I needed her if there was something I didn’t know that prophet wanted I would call her because she was living in the long building right there were probably the first building and um I would call her to come in and show me something or help me do something but it was usually lunch so she would come in at a certain time and I had everything and I knew that day that she would be walking in the door and I didn’t have the heart to say pishima you can’t grandma doesn’t want you in the kitchen anymore I mean there’s no way that I can say that to her so she sat down like you saw her there you know happy smile and she had her foot knifed she was ready to begin and everything was spread out we had the vegetable I had all everything cut out in tallies you know whatever vegetables are using that day the loki’s the jenga the portals these are all things that profit like the corella and everything ground up and so then she wanted to start she didn’t see the mustard paste and so she looked at me and I just said bolognese bengali for mustard seeds I think in hindi you say rye so I’d say sarson and her eyes got you know she was like what what’s that how are you gonna cook and so if you see this stone you see it has little pitted holes in it and it’s these holes that where the things get ground it’s not smooth and so after you use it for a long time you get it repeated because that’s where things and then the friction of this it grinds it to a paste I mean it’s equivalent to having a blender today so um and I didn’t tell you how I ended up with this is because I when we went to london you know I didn’t think I’ll just get a blunder there or a food processor I mean didn’t have those thoughts oh I gotta take prop but stillbot this weighs like 15 20 pounds you know I carry this on the airplane so that’s how I ended up with it um so at any rate is there and she’s got these big big cow eyes looking at me and she’s like pleading with me like are you kidding me how are we going to eat today so I couldn’t I couldn’t deny her because I just she was just absolutely you know lovable so I took one mustard seed and if you could know it one mustard seeds and I set it on that stone and it fell into one of those pits I mean you couldn’t even find it it just dropped into that pit and peshiba looked at me and I went bus no more that’s it and we both just cracked up laughing we started laughing she literally threw water on that one seed and she took the stone herself and started to grind that one mustard seeds we laughed and laughed she tried to scrape that out of that hole to use that you know but I just I thought to myself I couldn’t deny her coming in to break her heart and you know how could I explain to her and then I could not do what bro but said I so in my mind this is the rascal that I am that I thought okay I could figure this out so I just cut her off I cut her off of the mustard and I still had her in there so then that day so I had pro buds lunch everything we did and then prophet sitting there and he’s looking at me and um he’s and he says so you told her and um in my mind I was thinking well yeah I did I told her she didn’t get any mustard seeds so I just went and I couldn’t even look at him because I knew I knew that I was being a rascal because I didn’t know exactly what he said but I honored what he wanted and so I just went mm-hmm I didn’t even look out I just was in my heart I thought I managed the situation so that that was that was one of the little tale with pishima and um in the kitchen or not in the kitchen but you know I know you I know uh you know the vaishnavi ministry is organizing a wonderful event with you talking about peshima also ministry doing that yes it’s the international ministry so please follow international veterinary ministry page and look out for this wonderful detail we’re going to have an event with shruti rupert we’re talking about prishima throughout and on about I I wanted to ask you um one thing you know you touched upon it gently that chiropractor you know always honored prashadam he he definitely you know whenever he sat he mentioned he was not on the go eating prasad he always relished bashar and we saw some pictures tell us a little bit more about what srila prabhupada liked did he like to cook I know you know mother jamuna she’s mentioned show me so many times she’s learned cooking how about ditch shoulda proud but come into the kitchen try to cook something to give us a little glimpse into what was it like in the kitchen over there there’s a couple times that yes he did I took it he knew cooking very well um and there was there was even occasions you know when he would instruct you what to you know that day what he wanted and he would say how to do it and one day I’d come in and say you know I’m eating five dolls I’m eating three dolls or you know on sock like this and sometimes did he even have to bring in the spinach and he would cut it on his desk and show you exactly how he wanted it and then other times he’d come in the kitchen and then there was occasion in 76 when it was the beginning of him not being well then ayurvedic dr excuse me put him on um a special diet where he was to have no ghee and no salt and prophet came in the kitchen day after day after day and cooked himself and we assisted there was harisari in the kitchen polika in the kitchen myself in the kitchen and he cooked on the cooker and um he cooked everything in that one cooker and um I’d like to speak about that cooker in a minute but um answer you on um he did come in and he taught in uncertain and then on some days he would even say I want the doll on the bottom and it’s shipped on this on the middle or on the top and then on other days they put the shukda on the bottom and the um the doll on another tier 3 and inside of here these two tiers have inserts a steel insert and there’s holes like a steamer I mean I could take it apart and show it to you um and so the steam would go up so what was on here is you have to be really really conscious because this could boil out and I remember once in bhuvaneshwar when I was cooking for powerpoint I was cooking on a wood fire you couldn’t smell if anything was burning because it was all wood it all smelled like everything was smoking burning and at that time he wanted to ship to on the bottom and um and that day when I took it out oh my god there was no water and shook to his water and it was had a crust on the bottom and I had to scrape it and he had to have shook I couldn’t at that point I couldn’t start over and um it had a smoky taste it wasn’t it wasn’t offensive but it had a smoky taste and um I remember profit liking it very much and he commented but when I took the remnants palika was there she wasn’t well so I took the remnants to her and she immediately spit it out and said this is burnt but actually he liked it so cooking with the cooker was an art and prep had taught that and he would cook in it and he when he came there and it’s in harisari’s diaries um when um prabhupad came in during that time and he said that uh one of the days I was there he said uh so he made the different things and then on the rice he had the rice in the middle so you have the insert with the water with the rice and then on the insert the sides he would slip some other vegetable so that was another prep and then on top of the rice he would lay a potato so he’d have one two three four and then the other one five and then this top you would take off and fry the curly you have six you would get six or seven preparations out of this cooker yes and then on that that one day he said so he said you can cook um enough for four gentlemen he said four gentlemen in this cooker and and he made a joke he said in 45 minutes he said now he said you can go and sleep he was joking he probably got a wonderful time he joked a lot so but what he then was he actually made the chapatis and we all got to eat what prophet had not only made you know from that the cooks and the servants there so that was an occasion but the very first time I saw prophet in the kitchen he was coming in to teach um a recipe that we hadn’t figured out that’s when jamuna and palik and I went to calcutta and orendity was in charge perduna’s wife who take over prophet’s cooking while we were gone and we came back she showed us this one new preparation prophet taught and we just weren’t getting it right and he wasn’t happy so he said carl come in and I’ll show you so it was right after his response he came in in his gumshoe and he was all oiled up and it was like well he would go take bath and then after bath he would say gayatri and then the plate everything was very timely and punctual on the exact moment so it was right up to the massage and he came in and I have to tell you I don’t know if you’ve been in prophet’s kitchen in vrndavan you almost have to lower your head to get in it’s very small and when that door opened or this door opened and prophet was staying there all of a sudden you’ve got this waft of this sandalwood his head was massaged in santa when his body was massaged in mustard oil and when you got this raft come in and then prophet stepped in I remember him leaning stepping in he stopped at the doorway and he looked around and he said I’ve never been in my kitchen before he said it is very nice and in that moment when he stepped in I look I’m telling you this was a visceral feeling it felt like all the oxygen just went and prophet filled that entire room his presence filled that entire little capsule of his kitchen and it was extraordinary and the first thing he turned to the right where I was sitting because I was cutting the vegetables and I had a bucket there like a milk pail and I had taken the cauliflower and you know how you take it and you core it and I threw the core into the bucket and then I kept the flowers the first thing he looked at he said why you’ve thrown that away I didn’t say a word but you know I mean you don’t waste anything and that was one of prophet’s principles and I could go on to so many different things I’m trying to sum up for you um but he noticed that I didn’t say a word but I made a mental note about waste and then I started becoming more conscious and when I would see peachimo or even other cooks cooking you’d see them cut up that core even the leaves that come out of the cauliflower it’s another type of sock they’d throw that into a doll throw that nothing is wasted and this is you know part of the whole consciousness and so then he came around his little kitchen and he sat and I mean that’s a whole story I mean I don’t know if you want to hear that or we go to another subject please please continue oh that’s hysterical story please we had a little seat for him and we had coal but we had a milk pail bucket with cow with cow dung on it clay a mud and cow dung and then had the cut a hole in it we put coals in there and then the top of it was you know mud and cow dung and so became a stove and this is how we cooked we didn’t just you know have ovens and so on so forth so we had these cold buckets and we always did the chapatis on it and there was a few other preps and then we did have a small little propane two burners the prophet sat on this seat we had for him we had all everything cut up that he wanted all the spices everyone league and our boss stand there and his friend bugaji came in buggy g was with him you’ve heard of him and prophet stories um and so baggage was standing there they kept talking back and forth in um hindi and we were staying there with the spices and the pot was there and um probably put in the spices and he’d talk to um bhagaji and pulico would take the flame because it was on high and the truth of it is bengalis cook on high flames they cook on high heat and prophet had the heat all the way high through this bison talking to bugaji and palika just you know turned it down and um and property came back put more things in he noticed he turned it up you know and then he’s putting the more things again more things in and talking to and palika again turns it down this happens three times she turns it down and the third time he saw it he turned it up he said hari baba why are you messing that’s become a tagline in my life hari baba why are you messing at any rate so that was that and so then when he finished that preparation he looked at baggage and he said see so simple still they cannot do and then and then he and bhagiji got this is the story that is so fascinating so in that conversation they were back and forth in hindi and prophet was telling him about cooking on the stove and so on and so forth but then he switched over to english and he said he said on this two burners he said I can make bashad for a hundred men in 45 minutes and bhagavad-gi looked at him and he said he said kitri and prophet said no full prasad they make full prashant and bhagaji said impossible they were talking now in english he said impossible in pearl but looked at him because I keep turning because bhagaja was kind of a sign and prophet turned and prophet said I will bet you one lack of rupees and we’re sitting there you know her eyes are like we’re standing there and and and buggerjee he said he said whatever I had if I win or lose you still take my money and prophet laughed and then he got up and then then he went to go take his shower that was that and we’re all just we’re standing click and I and kari sorry went out with probably the clique and I are just standing there just you know unless he spent all that oxygen left and all that space just went with him I mean when he came in that because it’s a very small little room there’s no windows and there’s the door and when he came in I mean it literally literally he filled that entire space and when he walked out it was a whole nother thing and we were just kind of left there almost not we weren’t limp then you become ecstatic and but then it’s just like a page turned it was like stepping into the spiritual world just being in those close quarters with problem five thank you that’s beautiful so beautiful we’re actually visualizing you uh narrating this past time I want to show our audience a couple more pictures of the grove that you sent but before that how about we show them a short video clip that you sent me about your brow bone in the kitchen oh with the cooker because I wanted to tell you a little bit more about the cooker yeah should I show that video clip sure okay let’s see if I can pull it up sorry give me a minute [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] no [Music] [Music] [Music] can you hear me so yes I was 1977 after he left mayapur and I don’t know if you noticed but if you could see his hands they were very very swollen they were very full this was and probably was very thin then and he was eating very very little and he took this last trip and there was some of his you know bhakti he wasn’t he was a brahmacharya bhakti was the the brahmacari there and part of that clip that was to krishna maharaja predominately was there yardabar I think was filming that I know he was and he was in the kitchen teaching them and he taught him the same basic things that he taught in 1965 1966 he taught the same way of making um nothing had changed but you know on the cooker here which I want to bring this up you see this here but this is this is not mine this is um tomokrishna’s gave this to jamuna after prop and this is in dina tarnay’s care and um I’m bringing this up at this time and dina tarnay put it along with me when I was teaching some cooking and trying to inspire devotees but the the plan right now is is to um try to get um support and devotees um to help with the museum in the west we have museums in india but there’s nothing in the west and we’re all at this age now and here in alachua where I live there’s over 150 prophet disciples that everybody has something either shoes or some treasure bead bag profits brahmin thread you know books original books and manuscripts and then of course the famous cooker and these all need to go into a museum and we we so what we’re hoping and trying to do is create some enthusiasm and interest for those that have that they can you know bring forth at you know when we all leave this world that these can all be put somewhere and worshiped and treasured and including this cooker so we’re looking to create a home a museum for all of this and so um I’m just plugging this in right now because you see this you may be wondering why you know it’s I don’t have um and I I plan to continue with teaching and I want to teach these things and inspire the devotees but this needs a home and and I have many treasures actually not only the stone here that I was showing you I have this came with me too this is what I would make profits medicine in um and so when you travel if you just move your camera yeah yeah it’s a little stone I would make his grind his arvadic pills excuse me I gotta sneeze and so this came with me too and a couple more things came with me when I left london I have here this this here is one of prophet silver bowls and this is his silver spoon and if you see in where are we in that in that spoon it’s taped and there’s a piece of rice there’s a piece of rice from prophet’s plate that is still intact it hasn’t disintegrated and I think of it as in that story with the deuterochariot when lord nitchinando threw the rice so this is my mad man ecstasy and I think everybody should be able to be able to experience this bro puts rice still on the spoon and there’s this bowl and there’s actually some hair in that in that little container and I have shoes and beads you know different things and so many devotees have similar I know devices have so much and so um I encourage anyone who has things to come forward to be able to leave you know to think about their will to you know where these things will go I mean most people leave them with their kids and then the next generation and they’re not going to be as valued and and other devotees being able to experience this unless we have a museum so this is one of my pleas today that we want to create this museum here in the west and where all of these things will go so I’m hoping that devotees will come forward not only in support and bringing their things but also financial support to help us create this museum for prague’s legacy so beautiful I am sure there will be so many inspired to do that thank you so much for this wealth and opening your treasure box you have this great fortune of um association with srila prabhupada and then learning from fishima know as a second generation uh I’ve heard all different kinds of stories about pishi maha devotees were not able to get along with her and you have such a wonderful perspective of how you saw her through the chaitanya damrita so many beautiful recipes your gratitude to mother jamuna uh so many things you shared with us today so heart touching I’m telling you this is the fastest hour of my life uh I can’t even believe we’ve been talking for an hour and this could just continue please continue to share these beautiful memories that you and your association should have brought but I wanted to highlight one beautiful picture of you cooking for shiloh prabhupada in the vanguard well before we I don’t have but in the mango grove it was between calcutta and mayapur and prabhupada always it was a when he was driving either there or um here I am in the white sorry with the red and that’s bhakti charu again he’s a brahmacari there and then fanning prabhupada’s and you can if you zoning you can see how swollen prophet’s hands are you can see in that photo um like I said this was the early days of him getting ill and you know at that point where I said he blamed peace but that wasn’t you know the case prophet had something called dropsy which is um it has to do with the kidneys and your body retains water and that’s where profit works well but um so my point is that’s a little bit of picture of the mango girl but there’s another one that I put on there that you could see the actual mango grove and so there are the devotees there that were traveling with carl blood and this was this amazing old old old mango grove he would take his breakfast or take his lunch he always stopped and we had this picnic and it was such a wonderful wonderful thing and I went to mayapur I don’t know four or four years ago maybe and I was talking about the mango grove and narshwar prabhu said it’s it’s no more because I was saying where’s the mango grove I was looking as I drove and he said that they’ve they’ve torn it down and created something there but it was this wonderful place that prophet chose himself and I can only imagine you know what took place there but we had a wonderful he always stopped there going to and from mayapur to to eat and it was a very sweet sweet past time wow go on and use so many that but any rate yeah it’s been a wonderful hour and um there’s so many stories about peshima that you mentioned that um I think that’s on the fourth of april I’m not sure I’m speaking to one lady devotee from south africa yeah so rather we just mentioned that it’s the uh vaishnavi ministry is hosting that event and it is in honor of fushima and you’re going to be talking we can’t wait to hear more and what I hear from her it’s on the seventh seventh I believe on the seventh okay yeah I haven’t had my conversation I think initially you were thinking that but I’m speaking to her actually tomorrow on it yeah april 7th and they’re honoring the disappearance of fushima hmm disappearance day of fushima and we can’t wait to hear from you we will be hosting that event at the vaishnavi ministry international’s page um so please you know follow that page and you know make sure you tune in again to hear wonderful stories about the tsupushima and thank you so much none of us are leaving you know the audience hasn’t dropped I don’t feel like going uh it’s you’ve taken us back into the era when srila prabhupad walked this planet and really I’m reading the comments pouring in some devotees are saying you you’ve um inspired them to learn to talk you’re inspiring them to really uh take cooking seriously or for sharing very enlightening you know I’m so grateful to hear these wonderful pastimes absolutely beautiful wow excellent sounds like something my doctors would love to do it’s we’re just sporting with all this love and affection that the guests are sharing with us thank you so much for sharing thank you I thank you because you’ve helped me you know go into to uncover these these locked away memories and stories that it’s it’s it’s um nothing gives me greater joy so keep pulling it because I’d love to give it thank you so much thank you so much it’s such an honor to have you and thank you so much to all our guests for your active participation for your encouragement please continue to keep tuning in and just stay alive and stay inspired thank you very much so take a moment to subscribe to the gbc spd page and also tune into the vaishnavi ministry on the seventh of april where shruti rupa prabhu is going to be talking about pishima uh thank you so much everyone prabhupada ki jai just now