Srila Prabhupada In My Life - ebooks - ISKCON desire tree

www.bcswami.comput together, then they counteract each others’ richness.” That was a big lesson I learnedfrom Srila Prabhupada about cooking. When you put a lot of ghee, you must put a lot ofchili, whether you like it or not. If you want to digest the ghee, you have to put a lot ofchili.In this way we were just spending our time in Hrishikesh. We used to serve SrilaPrabhupada, just few of us. Mainly Tamal Krishna Maharaja, Upendra prabhu,Trivikrama Maharaja was there also. He was not directly serving Srila Prabhupada, buthe was there. In direct service it was Tamal Krishna Maharaja, Upendra prabhu andmyself. Few other devotees were there. Trivikrama Maharaja was there, Pramana Swamiwas there, Viraha Prakasa Swami was there. Then of course Pradyumna prabhu. And thenthere was Gauridasa. He was Tamala Krishna Maharaja’s servant.And in this way we were serving Srila Prabhupada in a very intimate atmosphere inHrishikesh. And Prabhupada also seemed to be very relaxed. Like in the morningPrabhupada used to translate and then I used to serve him some light breakfast. AndPrabhupada used to take lunch. I used to cook.One day, Srila Prabhupada decided to teach us how to cook. He actually decided to teachme, because I could not prepare the rice properly. The rice became…Prabhupada hardlyused to take rice. He used to mainly take chapatis, but that day I cooked some rice and therice became a little soggy, a little mushy, overcooked. So, Prabhupada was little upsetand then Prabhupada told me that he would show me how to cook rice.And in Hrishikesh you get very good quality basmati rice. Actually, best quality basmatirice comes from that region. It’s called ‘Dehradun rice.’ So I got the rice and thenPrabhupada showed me to get some ghee and just rub the ghee, mix the ghee with therice. That day, of course, Prabhupada told me just to put the ghee without washing therice, but if we want to cook it like that, nowadays they put chemicals and other stuffs inthe rice. It will be better to wash the rice first and dry it in the sun beforehand. And thenput the ghee. And then put exactly double the amount of water. First you boil the waterand then put the rice coated with ghee into the water. And then boil it, and when thewater is almost dry, just a little water is left, you turn the fire off and cover the pot withthe lid.After I cooked the rice, Prabhupada asked me to bring it, and asked me to get a spoon. Sohe asked me to pick up the rice with the spoon. And he showed that every single rice isperfectly cooked, yet every single piece of rice is separate from each other. No rice issticking to each other. Prabhupada was such an expert in everything that he did. Then hewent to the kitchen with us and Tamal Krishna Maharaja decided to learn to makechapatis from Prabhupada. So he was learning to make chapatis, I was preparing thesubji. So Prabhupada showed us how to make three, four preparations simultaneously.Prepare everything, cut the vegetables, and then, one after another, just put them indifferent pots on different fires. So that way.www.iskcondesiretree.com