Lunch With Swami: Eat more! 

Swamiji looks thin, but he is happy.  Panca-tattva is on the same table.  The boys are scruffy.  Is that Brahmananda with the belly?  Is that Acyutananda with the long hair?  Who’s the guy with the anchor tattoo?  I don’t know.  You wonder who will come to lunch.  Who will serve the capātīs?  There had to be a few girls there, too – that’s how it was.  Swamiji always sat in the center, the glowing source, our invitation to spiritual life.

Can I capture in my mind the actual aromas steaming from the pots?  I can only draw a few lines to indicate steam.  You should note though, that I can convey the aromas of our happiness at eating such hot rice, such subtly spiced capātīs … We had never even imagined such food, such capātīs from India.

“Eat more,” Prabhupada invites.  “Take seconds and thirds.”

People are wearing tilak in this picture, and some have red beads.  We eat with our right hands (and no spoons).

We’re still eating Krishna prasadam.  Now, of course, we know we shouldn’t eat so much.  But those were permissive days.  It was better to eat this food than to go out and eat lumps of sin – food not offered to Krishna, non-vegetarian food, dirty food, junk food.  This was food for the spirit; Prabhupada had offered it to Lord Caitanya.  You can see His glowing lotus feet in this picture.

Lunch with Swamiji was at one o’clock.  He cooked in his small kitchenette.  Later, his boys cooked.  A dozen or more of us would come.  At first we would sit in his room with him, but after the noon meal attracted more people, we would have lunch downstairs and Swamiji wouldn’t come.  It was very special in the earliest days to sit in his room with him and have lunch.  The room was warmed by the prasadam and the heat from the near-by kitchenette, which showed signs of the recent explosion of hot chaunce meeting hot metal.  The room was especially warmed by Swamiji and his “Eat more!”