The Chandan Yatra festival is celebrated
for the pleasure of the Lord, starting from Akshaya Tritiya. As the
temperature rises during the summer, for a period of 21 days the body
of the Lord is anointed with scented sandalwood mixed with camphor,
musk, saffron. As the sandalwood is applied to the beautiful body of
the Lord, it immediately cools.
I was only once in India during this Yatra, in Chowpatty, and I remember how nice was to see everybody making chandan paste day and night and how excited and happy were the devotees for having darshan every morning. Sweet sweet pastimes…
Falafel is a fried ball or patty made from spiced fava
beans and/or chickpeas. Invented by Egyptian bedouins, it has become a
popular form of fast food in the Levant and in the Mashriq (Arab
East). The word “falafel” is the plural of an Arabic word meaning pepper.
Falafel is usually served as a sandwich wrapped in pita bread, and
the term “falafel” commonly refers to this sandwich—falafel in a pita is typical street food or fast food.
The originally Arabic dish became popular in Israel; it is often referred to as the national dish of Israel.
Looks like this is the International Cookery week or something…hehe. I
really enjoy looking for new recipes to please the Lord…
I made falafel for the first time and it was a successful experience…
DIRECTIONS:
1) Blend the chickpeas (raw).
2) Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3) Cover and keep it aside for 30 minutes (for fermentation).
4) Make the balls or the pattys and deep fry on hot ghee. Wait for a few seconds to touch them while frying…they may break!
(you can also cover them with sesame seeds before frying)
5) Serve in pita bread with salad and your favorite sauce. Hummus, mayonnaise… I served them with spiced yogurt.
6) Offer to Krsna and enjoy!
I was looking for inspiration in a Japanese cookbook and onigiri called my attention very much. I remember having seen them somewhere when I was a child and finally I found the recipe.
It is a snack of rice formed into triangle or oval shapes and wrapped in green leaves* (avoid nori seaweed cause it may not be vegetarian). Onigiri literally means “taking hold of (something) with your hands”. It is one of the most famed and popular snacks in Japan. I find onigiri not only cute but very practical for travelling. This is how to make them:
1. Cook a suitable amount of rice for the number of people you want to feed. Important: do not rinse the rice before cooking! You want it to be sticky and clumpy. White short grain rice is the best kind for onigiri.
2. It’s important to work with the rice while it’s still warm and sticky, but let it cool a little first so you won’t be scalded. Five minutes should do it. Turning the rice from the cooking container into another bowl and fluffing it with a fork or rice scoop will help it to cool slightly.
3. Fill a bowl with cold water and stir in a couple of teaspoonfuls of salt - keep this in your work area and dip your hands before beginning each onigiri. This will ensure that the rice sticks to itself, without sticking to you!
4. Having dipped your hands, scoop out a small quantity of warm rice. Take an amount that you can easily work in your hand.
5. Give shape to your onigiri…
Fancier shapes will usually require a mold…
6. Use any green leave to decorate your onigiri, folding it around one edge of the disc or triangle…
…or wrapping around the middle of the capsule…
7. Set the completed onigiri aside on a plate and dip your hands ready for the next one. Chilling the onigiri in the fridge helps to set them.
This is the very basic recipe, but you can fill and decorate your onigiri in unlimited ways… get inspired!
Kali Yuga today… unfortunately 428,000 years to go…
This video represents the current advancement of Kali.
“The illusory energy has two phases of existence, namely the covering influence and the throwing influence. By the throwing influence the illusory energy throws the living entities into the darkness of ignorance, and by the covering influence she covers the eyes of men with a poor fund of knowledge about the existence of the Supreme Person who enlightened the supreme individual living being, Brahma.” Srimad Bhagavatam 2.9.34p
Hear this for purifying yourself after watching the video:
Check this movie, Pirates of Silicon Valley, about the life of Steve Jobs (Apple) and Bill Gates (Microsoft) where devotees are featured around minute eight.
I have been listening to Radhanatha Mahara’s South India Yatra lectures lately. I had the good fortune of being on that Yatra and hearing them again brings wonderful memories back to my heart. I transcribed a few words of Maharaja that were very inspiring for me. Read them carefully.
“We must follow on the footsteps of the great souls. We make advancement
by serving, and please know, that service doesn’t mean according to
your convenience. Service means sacrifice, tolerance, humbling
yourselves in a difficult situation. To put someone else before
yourself, to give pleasure to another Vaisnava. That’s what service is
about. We have spoken Prabhupada’s immortal sentence that “a person’s greatness has to be estimated by their willingness and their ability to tolerate provoking circumstances”. We are not fair-weather devotees. Fair-weather devotees means we will perform our service to guru, we will perform our service to the devotees and Krsna when it’s convenient for me. I love to hear stories about selfless servants like Haridas Thakur, or Kolaveca Sridhar, or Kancipurna, but when it comes to my own life, if it’s convenient, if it’s comfortable, if it’s to my interest, then I am the most humble obedient servant. But if it means some irritation or inconvenience to
me, then I have a different mentality…
…There are inconveniences. We have been told that obstacles are the
greatest benedictions because they give us an opportunity to actually
show our devotion… So when things are hard, when things are
difficult, do we put ourselves in front of someone else? That means we
have not understood what a Vaisnava is, we have not understood what
bhakti is… If we fight for anything, we should be fighting to put
other people in front of us. We should be fighting to give people
conveniences before us. We shouldn’t be judgemental, we shouldn’t be
critical. Let everyone else be before me…
…The whole essence of bhakti is “servant of the servant of the
servant” and how we are serious about it will only be understood when
practicing that principle is difficult. When there is an anxiety
situation, when there is pressure on us, when our mind is disturbed.
That is the time we can actually show Krsna that I’m the servant of the
servant of the servant, not when it’s just so fun and convenient to
serve others…
…Every single devotee must take the personal responsibility to behave
properly and to speak properly and that means amanina manadena, to
offer all respect to others and expect non in return and offering
respects to other means in words and also in action. It is this type of
etiquette that pleases Krsna.” Radhanath Maharaja - South India Yatra 2005-2006
Today some of my brother’s school friends came for prasadam. I had a good cookery session and Sara also helped me in the dosa making. Here are some pictures of this beautiful sunny day.
Some like it simple…
Some with lots of tomato chatni…
Yuuummmm!!!
Everybody happy with prasadam
And it was Alvaro’s birthday so Bhakta Soheil made a delicious cake!!!
Srila Prabhupada maha-prasadam ki jaya!
Everyday is a good day to take Krsna-prasadam with good friends.
Well, from time to time my brother cooks for Krsna too (click here to see his blog) … and do you know what? He is good!
That’s what happens with masterminds… anything they do they do it well. After eating prasadam prepared by him I started to feel a bit more intelligent and all, but that was a temporary effect hehehe. Thank you Eze for the break!
I would put a picture of him but he is 100% introvert according to the test so… watch his satvic cooking and be happy
I didn’t tell you anything about India yet so I though it was time to show at least a few pictures of my last trip to the Holy Dhama. I decided to start with Tirupati. We were blessed by Krsna not only for coming back again to this Holy place but also for attending the opening of the new Sri Sri Radha Govinda temple…
Pune-Tirupati train and arrival…
Eze and Gaura Prema Prabhu holding the elephant’s leg…
Temple…
Nitai Prabhu with my brother and Mandali with me… we spent most of our time in India with them. Missing you!!!
Next day, devotees very excited waiting for the maha-abhiseka…
Maha-abhiseka…
And also pusya abhiseka…
First darshan after installation…
Amaaazing prasadam…
Temple in detail…
After 3 or 4 days we left to Sri Mayapur Dhama very happy and
inspired by this experience. Thank you to all the devotees that made this possible. All glories to Sri Sri Radha Govinda and Their
devotees!!!.
All glories to Sri Lord Venkateswara - Balaji…
All glories to Tirumala!. We climbed the sacred hills again-4000 stairs- by the mercy of the devotees (I couldn’t have done it without them) and Balaji gave us His transcendental darshan. While I was in front of Him I remembered all my friends, those who were there and those who weren’t. I always carry all of you in my heart
Tirumala hill is considered non different from Vaikuntha… I pray to
come back again and again!
One good friend was coming for dinner tonight so I went into the kitchen to begin the weekend doing what I like the most: cooking for Krsna!. Usually we don’t take heavy dinner but I couldn’t avoid making pizza again…this time it was a bit more in goodness (no tomatoes).
Before the pizza I made the Dvaraka burfi that our friend loves so much. Every time he comes home (or we visit him) I make it and he eats it all with my brother. One day I must give you the recipe if you don’t know it already. It’s easy, fast and always successful!.
Here you can see me in action for the first time in my Spanish kitchen, hehehe.
Then I made the satvic pizza (zucchini, cream olives and cheese).
Before… and after.
Then some very very hot soup with lots of ginger…
And also some salad…getting the offering ready with extra olives of course!
Note: the burfi needs a few hours to cool down. If you have that time, it will look much nicer, but the taste is as good
So this is me after a cookery session, fully satisfied and ready to enjoy Prabhupada’s maha-prasadam.
Hare Krsna! My name is Gopi Kumari devi dasi. I'm 28 years old. I was born in Argentina but lived in Spain since I was 3. I like cooking and dancing for Krsna. I hope you enjoy my blog. Click here to know more about me.
