Krishna House, Krishna Lunch
BY: SATYAHIT DAS
Apr 26, 2010 — ALACHUA, FLORIDA, USA (SUN) — On April 25th, 2010, at Krishna House, Gainesville, Florida, in the early afternoon, four new devotees, having served diligently Srila Prabhupada's instructions, from 1 to 3 years, under the excellent guidance of Kalakanta prabhu, were given 1st initiation.
A 5th devotee, Gopal prabhu, who alone cuts up vegetables to feed thousands, was given second initiation by his initiating guru, who joked that now, not only could he do cut-up, but he may also cook.
Krishna House and Krishna Lunch both, are magnificent manifestation's of Krishna consciousness. The head priest, Chaturatma prabhu, under cloudy and thunderous
skies, after an hour of well thought out congratulations, offered along with new Krishna lunch calendars given to all the participants of Krishna Lunch via Hanan prabhu, the Krishna Lunch manager, (several other young University of Florida student volunteers and staff also spoke), said, the new devotees were being given 1st initiation on behalf of Srila Prabhupada.
Kalakanta prabhu, the initiating guru, offered the four devotee's their new names after they promised to continue following the four regulative principles in the battle to subdue Maya.
The downpour of rain did begin before the initiation ceremony was completed, so, undaunted, devotees held tarps above the 3 foot sacrificial fire, while Chaturatma prabhu conducted the final rites, as devotees jumping up and down in the downpour sang the Hare Krsna maha mantra in great excitement.
A great feast, prepared by Madava prabhu, after 2 days cooking, was served inside the Krishna House temple room, during the rainstorm which had come further south after taking up to 10 lives in the Mississippi area due to one of the worst tornadoes in the history of the USA.
Krishna Lunch offers prasadam to between 8 and 1,200 daily, Monday through Friday during the regular school operation, within a 2 hour period from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, after which a late lunch is served from 2 to 4 around the Krishna House itself. Wednesday is the biggest serve out, when spaghetti is offered. This is no small feat and requires well thought out organization and tons of service. The head cook, Sunanda prabhu, rises daily around 3:30 am, and has everything cooked with his assistant, Gauranga prabhu, offered to Lord Krishna, the Proprietor of the Krishna House, and ready to leave the temple by 10:30 am, although he lives a 1/2 hour away outside of Gainesville.
Another amazing facet of Krishna Lunch is that 2 kirtans are simultaneously playing as lunch is served. One is live, often headed by Purushartra prabhu, and the other is via an MP3 fed into a boombox next to Hanan prabhu, at the start of the prasadam line up.
Krsna's Arrangement, certainly not Maya's, as few if any universities in the USA and in this world host prasadam distribution along with live kirtans.
If the entire world were vegetarian and animals were not slaughtered daily for human consumption, disease and war would cease to be. Just as when a new item is purchased, so a manual of operation is also given along with it, similarly we have been given manuals by the Lord via His servants and mystical potencies, on how to behave and live in this material world. "Thou shalt not kill" is a well known proverb, or one of the 10 Commandments given to Moses by the Lord, which is largely broken by present society in which thousands of slaughter houses daily, just as the sun rises, hence disease and wars are both rapidly increasing. This is the karmic reaction for breaking God's Laws. In the Spiritual World or the Kingdom of God, no rules are broken, hence everyone is happy, and there exist no wars or disease. Simple for the simple minded, who are without material motivations.
Shopping at Sam's Club a couple weeks ago, standing waiting in line with the long cart, at that time with 30 bags of basmati rice on board, a relatively small quantity, a lady in front of me asked, as people fairly often do, seeing my large quantities of groceries,
"What's all that rice for?" When I explained its use at the U of Florida, she said, "That's wonderful. That's wonderful that you're doing that." I don't think she knew anything about the significance of prasadam.
KrishnaLunch.com
