Nityaananda! Gauraanga! Hare Krishna! Dotsub.com seems to be a very easy browser-based free subtitling (captioning) tool.
Daaso'smi, BR Sadhu Swami Gaurangapada.
Some Points on Prasadam, Cooking and Offering by Gaura Keshava dasa prabhu:
Nowhere in sastra does it mention offering food COOKED by an avaisnava/ non-Vaisnava. There may be instances cited by devotees where Srila Prabhupada did take cooked food when preaching. But surely these are exceptions not rules. We do not have an instance where he offered this COOKED food to a deity.
Traditionally there are two types of devotees who beg from householders. One will accept any cooked food and usually that is because he is begging from a Vaisnava householder who offers him prasadam but the more traditional Vaisnava beggar begs only the ingredients of prasadam and prepares the food he begs himself and offers it. Such beggars beg grains and fruits and prepare an offering
themselves.
In the quotes you give Srila Prabhupada actually never says that COOKED food should be taken or offered. The statement is "Sometimes preachers in the Krsna consciousness movement have to accept food in a home where the householder is an avaisnava; however, if this food is offered to the Deity, it can be taken." It NEVER says what you have stated " if food COOKED by an avaisnava is offered to the Deity, it can then be eaten." because sastra forbids food COOKED by non-devotees to be offered to the deity. I would suggest that you have interpreted that COOKED food can be offered to the deity. It never says that. We know that uncooked food like fruits can be offered to the deity so if food items like this are offered to a Vaisnava he may offer them to the deity. We have never experienced a situation where a deity has been offered food that was actually COOKED by non-devotees??? Do we have any traditional or sastric evidence for that??? So Srila Prabhupada may have occasionally out of politeness taken COOKED food on preaching programs but it was never offered to any deity.
We usually make a distinction between COOKED and non-cooked food. Especially in temple bhoga preparation. How often have any of you known a bhakta or bhaktin to be asked to help in cutting up vegetables or fruits for an offering. It is common. On the other hand how often do bhaktas or bhaktins actually COOK the preparations that are COOKED with the stove or oven for the deity??? This was never done, at least in the old days. So it would seem that from the beginning this distinction was clear. When I joined there was no question of a non-brahmin stirring a pot on a stove. Cutting vegetables and fruit, or even combining uncooked ingredients OK. I myself remember being taught to make coconut (date) honey balls for distribution on sankirtan at the temple when I was just a bhakta (even before I moved into the temple). I know of other people who would make simply wonderfuls although I think this is border line cooking because the butter normally has to be heated to mix with the other ingredients but of course a brahmin could heat the butter and give it to a bhaktin or bhakta to mix into the other ingredients which I am sure is what happened in most cases. As time went on I think we have become more lax about this. Perhaps now is the time to get back to basics and re-assert some of these basic practices.
Another thing I want to mention. Sometimes there is a tendency to hire cooks sometimes to do mass cooking. Such cooks are or were in the olden days always brahmins. Please note that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has stated that he will not accept food in the home of anyone who does not chant 64 rounds per day. (His standard for Gaudiya Vaisnavas). Yet we have biographical evidence that He did indeed eat food prepared by non-Vaisnavas albeit Brahmins. However note that even above and beyond His prescription of eating in someone's home only if they chanted 64 rounds, He still would not eat anything cooked by non-brahmins. In Puri when he was accepting lunch invitations from different devotees those who were brahmins cooked and offered the food at home and hosted Him. Those who were non-brahmins (but still Vaisnavas) purchased Jagannatha prasadam from the temple to feed Him because it would be improper for Him as a brahmin/sannyasi to eat their cooked food. Thus we have the example of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
So it would seem that food cooked by brahmins and/or Vaisnavas is the only food offerable to deities. This is the traditional and sastric standard. Of course there are many householders who may not be brahmins and yet have to eat. They have normally been encouraged to take temple prasadam or offer their food at home but in the case of home offerings since they are not brahmins they are not usually permitted to perform proper deity worship. Some abridged method should be employed by them, and they should all endeavor to take diksha as soon as possible so they can actually follow the standard Vaisnava practices.
Your conclusion is that devotees may occasionally take Vegetarian food and offer it somehow (in the mind, to a picture, but I would suggest not to the temple deity). This question is about the standards of what may and what may not be offered to a deity. Now granted that there are different forms (8 mentioned in sastra) of the deity including that mental deity within the mind. And we should not be making distinctions between them (one form of Krsna is non-different from another). However in practice we DO make a distinction between offering items casually in the mind, or to a picture and when offering items ON AN ALTAR IN A TEMPLE TO AN INSTALLED DEITY. So without getting into the whole area of what makes the standard of the installed deity in the temple different from that of the deity in the mind or even the picture on a home kitchen shelf, I think that we have been taught to have the highest standards in the temple worship of the installed deity. Other situations may call for improvising and doing the best (most Krsna conscious) thing possible in a particular situation, but let us first and foremost emphasize in no unclear terms that temple deity offerings must be cooked ONLY by those with Vaisnava diksha and by that I specifically mean 2nd initiation or brahmin initiation. Preparing food that is not cooked and by this I mean cutting, stirring, and whatever else that DOES NOT involve physical contact of the person with any COOKING medium like a stove, or oven is acceptable. There is a book by the great saint Vedanta Desika which is still followed by many Orthodox Sri Vaisnavas in South India which is call Ahara Niyama (Rules of Food). In that and also in His magnum opus Rahasya Traya Saram he states clearly that "others may help in the preparation of food items but a Brahmin must supervise" So it is clearly understood by all orthodox higher class Hindus/Vaisnavas that those who are not brahmins should not cook food
for offering.
There are many restrictions on taking other people's food in India. Vaisnavism upholds these. Those who do not accept this should take a trip to India and visit some orthodox Vaisnavas or Hindus and see how they cook, offer and eat even today. Srila Prabhupada was not against being strict in this regard although he was also practical when it came to preaching. He was not a fanatic. However we should try to follow his example and also not be fanatics. We should not imitate him. That means as a matter of common practice we should cook and offer our food in the traditional way. If there is some exceptional circumstance we may take food cooked by others. However I don't see any situation that requires us to offer that food to the deity. It is a sin to eat unoffered food. We may occasionally tolerate this. It is also a sin (seva aparadha) to offer unofferable food to the deity. We should never tolerate this sin.
Some Points by Gaura Keshava dasa prabhu:
There are two systems of lunar month in India. Purnamanta (ending on purnima) and Amanta (ending on amavasya). The Gaudiya Vaisnavas follow the Purnamanta system. For example the day after Gaura Purnima starts the new Gaurabda or year for Gaudiya
Vaisnavas.
Therefore the last day of Kartitika or any other month will be a purnima or full moon. If you started caturmasya on a purnima then you will end it on the day before a purnima.
Caturmasya means four months. Therefore Caturmasya ends four months after it begins. Since you can begin the vrata on Ekadasi, or Purnima (or perhaps the day after them) it can end on a corresponding Ekadasi or Purnima four months later. So it depends when you start it. Karttika/Damodara month is however fixed, it will end on a Purnima (for those who follow Purnamanta calendars).
Urja vrata is performed in Karttika or Damodara month. Therefore it ends at the purnima. The next day after purnima will be a new month and NOT Karttika or Damodara month. Please calculate the end of Karttika or Damodara month for your location and offer lamps from the day after the previous purnima (of Padmanabha month) up until and including Karttika purnima.
