A New Year at Every Moment

On 3 January 1974 on a morning walk in Los Angeles, California, USA Srila Prabhupada explained to us how through Krishna consciousness we can experience a new year at every moment:
"Our every day is a new year, navayauvana. Our Krishna consciousness is so nice, the more you advance, you see new year, new year. That's all. Nothing is old. People are seeing that they are simply chanting the old slogan, Hare Krishna. But we are feeling new pleasure in every moment. Take any other chanting, you cannot chant more than few hours. But the Hare Krishna mantra we can chant perpetually. So unless there is new enlightenment, how we can do that?"

So let us take full advantage of this most sublime instruction from Srila Prabhupada and by so doing experience every moment as the sweetest, most exciting adventure.

Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom

Question: Why Not Accept Foods from Non-devotees?

Any food (except non vegetarian food) however it has been prepared if offered to Krishna before consuming, it would turn into Krishna prasadam, this is what has been taught and practiced here, since a working man cannot always have food prepared and offered to Krishna.

Secondly, since everything is coming from Krishna why judge the person who has prepared the food? As a Krishna devotee everything we do is for Krishna. We eat, sing, talk, work everything is for Krishna and just for Krishna. So, no harm should come by accepting food from a person who may not be a devotee. But we must only consume after offering to Krishna.

Sree Nath
Hare Krishna

Answer: Abandon Such Food as Untouchable

My Dear Sree Nath,

Please accept my blessings.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Eating food cooked by non-devotees means that you are too lazy to arrange nice foodstuffs for Krishna's satisfaction. Although my wife and I fly all over the world, we never take the food, even the vegetarian food, cooked by the airlines. We bring our own prasadam and the airline heats it up for us.

In this connection Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport to Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya Lila, Chapter 9, Text 53 as follows:

If an avaiṣṇava offers food in the name of mahā-prasādam, it should not be accepted. Such food cannot be prasādam because an avaiṣṇava cannot offer anything to the Lord. Sometimes preachers in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement have to accept food in a home where the householder is an avaiṣṇava; however, if this food is offered to the Deity, it can be taken. Ordinary food cooked by an avaiṣṇava should not be accepted by a Vaiṣṇava. Even if an avaiṣṇava cooks food without fault, he cannot offer it to Lord Viṣṇu, and it cannot be accepted as mahā-prasādam. According to Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.26):

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it.”

Kṛṣṇa can accept anything offered by His devotee with devotion. An avaiṣṇava may be a vegetarian and a very clean cook, but because he cannot offer Viṣṇu the food he cooks, it cannot be accepted as mahā-prasādam. It is better that a Vaiṣṇava abandon such food as untouchable.
--end of quote--

I hope this meets you in the best of health and in a humble, learning mood.

Your ever well-wisher,
Sankarshan Das Adhikari


Sankarshan Das Adhikari is one of the spiritual masters of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement. He has dedicated the last 50 years of his life for bringing a spiritual revolution to planet earth by spreading the teachings of Lord Sri Krishna all over the world. He is based in Austin, Texas and when there is no pandemic regularly travels all over the world teaching his audiences how to attain Krishna consciousness, the highest stage of spiritual awakening. He is available for media interviews and to speak to groups and organizations either in person or via the internet.