Jayananda and His Love for Prasadam

 

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf,

a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.

(Bhagavad-Gita 9.26)

 

Jayananda's whole world was about prasadam. His whole day and his activities all revolved around prasadam. Collecting the bhoga, preparing the bhoga, offering bhoga to Srila Prabhupada, and serving prasadam to others, and taking it himself, and then speaking praises of prasadam – that was the typical day for Jayananda. When he wasn't collecting the materials, or planning the next festival (of which the distribution of prasad was central), or when he wasn't cooking the offering, or offering it, or serving or honoring it, then he was thinking about prasad, or glorifying prasad or talking about the Lord's mercy. He had great faith in the process of prasadam and its transcendental effect upon the conditioned souls. This was his life and soul – to give prasad to others, as much as possible. In this way, this was his whole day, this was his whole existence, and it was all about the transcendental process of distributing and taking prasad. A devotee of Krishna does not want any possessions or fame or followers, he is satisfied with simple Krishna prasadam and knowing he is Krishna's servant.

 

He just plain loved prasadam

Bhuta-bhavana Dasa recently told me this story about Jayananda. Bhuta-bhavana was cooking for Radha-Damodara Traveling Sankirtan Party on the buses. Jayananda had joined this particular bus. The devotees would go out and work hard for Krishna all day and come back. Bhuta-bhavana had cooked that day, and the devotees were taking their meal. Jayananda was exclaiming, “Bhuta-bhavana! What nice prasad you have cooked!”

Jayananda was just relishing this prasad and praising Bhuta-bhavana. Bhuta was telling me how Jayananda was so enthusiastic about taking this prasad and praising him for such a job well done. Yet, Bhuta told me that he was like no special cook, or that the prasad was like nothing really very special. He said that later he realized that Jayananda just plain loved prasad and honoring it and praising it and praising the cook, and so on.

 

The prasadam song

Jayananda would sometimes talk about the “sharira avidya-jal, jodendriya tahe kal” song by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, and say how it was such a nice song, with such a nice melody. This is the song that devotees always sing before honoring prasadam:

 

sharira avidya-jal, jodendriya tahe kal,

jive phele vishaya-sagare

tar madhye jihva ati, lobhamoy sudurmati,

take jeta kathina samsare

 

krishna bara doyamoy, koribare jihva jay,

swa-prasad-anna dilo bhai

sei annamrita pao, radha-krishna-guna gao,

preme dako chaitanya-nitai

 

 

“O Lord, this material body is a place of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths to death. Somehow we have fallen into this ocean of material sense enjoyment, and of all the senses the tongue is most voracious and uncontrollable; it is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world. But You, dear Krishna, are very kind to us and have given us such nice prasad, just to control the tongue. Now we take this prasad to our full satisfaction and glorify You, Lord – Radha and Krsna – and in love call for the help of Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda.”

And Jayananda said how he would like to sing this song more throughout the day, except that it would remind him of how we were all about ready to take prasadam, and then he would be anxious for that to happen again. That was the real highlight of his day, when all devotees were sitting around in circles, smiling and singing “sharira avidya-jal, jodendriya tahe kal,” everyone eager to honor the Lord's remnants. This was the real life, taking the mercy with Jayananda.

 

Full to the neck

Jayananda felt guilty in the early days in San Francisco because he thought he was going there mostly to eat. And Prabhupada kept encouraging him to take more prasad. Jayananda said that Prabhupada would put all the preps on a big metal plate and serve him from the plate till he was full to the neck. Srila Prabhupada would cook special for Jayananda and make sure that he took. How Jayananda loved prasad in those early days! He told me about a pot of halava always kept in the temple. He said how this halava was so potent and transcendental, how it made him so Krishna Conscious when he came back from a hard day in the taxicab. He gave donations to Prabhupada from his earnings as a cab driver, and when he would come in the morning and no one would be there, he was sure to be fed. In the evening he said that Srila Prabhupada would personally either hold the prasadam for him or personally cook the prasadam for him when he came back, and would exclude all of the other devotees just so he could give Jayananda prasadam.

 

His classic feast of buttermilk and bananas

Bananas and buttermilk, this was the classic Jayananda im­promptu feast. When old devotees of San Francisco see butter­milk and bananas, they think of Jayananda. He was always going out and getting bananas and buttermilk and bringing it to us at the Ratha cart site. He was always alert when there was a maha offering newly transferred, and devotees were hovering around the trays. Jayananda would always get a tray and try to distribute some maha to devotees, but only after the guests were duly fed.

Each day in the kitchen, Jayananda would cook in the morning for the sankirtan devotees and then serve it out to them; and then late at night he would clean the kitchen, while we slept. It is painful now to think back how I slept while he was working into the night. That was how he wanted it – he wanted us to get rest so we could serve Krishna nicely the next day.

 

Strawberries rescued

We would go out on a bhoga run, and Jayananda would try to persuade some vendor to donate some bhoga to the Lord and His devotees. They would often give. They gave cheerfully because they loved him, like everybody did. Then he would rummage in the throw-out bins for produce that was still usable. I have fond memories of Jayananda half-immersed in a produce bin, then dipping down into it with a gleeful smile on his face as he discovered some usable fruit or veggies. I remember one time we were driving out of the produce place when Jayananda spotted a box of strawberries spilled on the street. He immediate­ly stopped and rescued the bhoga for the Lord's service, making sure to pick up the loose berries and return them to the box.

 

Everything is personal

I remember one time when I was serving prasadam to Jayananda. We can see the traces of our impersonalism even in the simple act of serving prasad. I was being an impersonalist at that time, because I somehow “merged” a prep into another prep on Jayananda's plate. He gave me a big frown. I then realized how every little action counts in Krishna Consciousness, that nothing is to be done haphazardly and whimsically. Due to my inattentiveness I had displeased my dear godbrother Jayananda, and I was immediately sorry for that. His plate was personal, the preps were personal, and he didn't like them merged.

 

Always meditating on the next festival

Jayananda was always meditating on the next festival at which there would be mass distribution of prasad. If it was not Ratha-yatra, then it was the Govardhana Hill festival in San Diego, or the Santa Cruz festival, or the Berkeley festival. Jayananda always had a project of some upcoming festival and feast. We had this old red truck, and Jayananda performed so many transcendental prasad pastimes with this old beloved red truck. I guess the slogan for Jayananda may well be:

“Have red truck, will travel ...

to the next festival and feast.”

 

He was always in the garage, building a prasadam cart, or building Ratha carts for the next festival and feast.

 

Not what it's cracked up to be

Jayananda showed us that the process of Krishna Consciousness was always blissful and fun. Whereas the process of being in maya, which is built up as being so great and wonderful, is actually exaggerated and frustrating. Especially the expectations of sex life, regarding which Jayananda once told me, “It really isn't what it's cracked up to be.” The Srimad Bhagavatam says how the so-called glories of sex are simply exaggerated, and the Bhagavad-Gita says how lust is “our eternal enemy.” Lust is simple and plain selfishness and exploitation of other living entities and one's own body. Jayananda was so free of lust because he didn't have a selfish bone in his body. He was constantly working for the benefit of all living entities by assisting Srila Prabhupada in giving Krishna Consciousness to the whole world.

Jayananda was always a party man for Krishna, he was always the festival man. He proved that Krishna Consciousness was always a party, and that service to Krishna is always joyfully performed. On the other hand, material hankerings, and the long struggle to satisfy such hankerings, is always hellish hard work. The living entities of this world are intent upon being the enjoyers and masters of this world, but the harsh reality is that they are always struggling for existence. They forget their original constitutional position as eternal servants of Lord Krishna, and they try vainly to be masters of this world. Bhagavad-Gita tells us how all living entities are struggling hard for existence, which is called prakriti sthani karshati –

 

The living entities in this conditioned world

are My eternal, fragmented parts.

Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard

with the six senses, which include the mind.

(Bhagavad-Gita 15.7)

 

In the Seventh Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada says that materialists work very hard to go to hell, they work very hard building factories and slaughterhouses and brothels and big buildings of vice for drinking and meat eating and sex indulgence. But devotees very easily and blissfully go back to Godhead.

 

He invented throwing peanuts off the festival truck

Also Jayananda invented the transcendental peanut prasad that was thrown from the festival truck in New York. Adikeshava Prabhu describes this nicely, how when other devotees tried to throw the peanuts, many would end up on the ground, but when Jayananda threw them, the spectators got caught up with Jayananda's enthusiasm and would receive the peanuts with enthusiasm. By the way, the word “enthusiasm” means, in the original Greek, “in God,” or “en thios.” And Jayananda was certainly “in God” and he infected everyone around him with it. Adikeshava also told the wonderful story of the nocturnal watermelon and burfi prasad feast in the middle of the night, while they were taking the Ratha carts back to the site. It was like a second Ratha-yatra parade at night. Someone brought some watermelon and burfi and Jayananda woke them and they had a feast, then again fell asleep.

 

Always giving out the mercy

Jayananda was always bringing some nectar maha or prasad to us at the Ratha site. When the Ratha festival was over, he was always in anxiety to serve the leftover prasad out in the streets before it went bad. He would take the buckets to town and serve them out to the bums, or whomever. Even at the hospital, he was craving some pakoras and he asked for a bucket of them, and then he distributed them profusely. Also tons of burfi and lugglus, and then he asked for books and magazines to distribute around the hospital. He was always into distributing cookies to the neighbors around the Ratha site, or bringing more prasadam to the devotees at the site, or sometimes he even cooked prasadam in bars for the drunks. There was no impediment to his prasadam distribution.

I have fond memories of those incense runs we did together. The highlight of our day in the incense van was his cooking and offering prasad in the morning or night. We would always stop at some devotee's house somewhere and Jayananda would always cook some transcendental prasadam for everybody, and we would have a program. He always knew somebody in town, whether it was Chico or Sacramento or Salt Lake City. We always had transcendental company and kirtan and prasadam.

 

Always seizing the moment

Nothing in this material world really mattered to Jayananda, except that we prepare and distribute and honor nice prasad. If there was a TV announcement that World War III had begun, and the bombs were on their way, Jayananda would just cook and serve prasadam to all of us while he chanted hari-bolo. And then we would all relish Krishna prasadam as Krishna's Holy Names resounded, and to hell with the bombs or whatever, because Jayananda would always seize the moment. Hari-bol!

 

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Jayanandanugas – lower-than-straw devotees give tribute to Jayananda Thakur

 

Srila Prabhupada was always fond of Jayananda, and sometimes he would invite his budding disciple to take prasad with him in his room. “Srila Prabhupada would cook prasad and serve me,” Jayananda recalled. “He didn't say anything – he just kept feeding me, and I kept eating.” – from Remembering Jayananda by Kalakantha Dasa

 

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Every time he honors prasadam, he says, “This is the best prasadam I've ever had!” All the devotees smile and agree, “Jaya!” They know that Jayananda always says that. Invariably, some new bhakta will pipe up, “But you said that last time.” Jayananda always replies, “No, Prabhu, I'm telling you, this is the best prasadam I've ever had! Who cooked today? This is definitely the best!” He is so attracted to eating as a devotional activity that he is always glorifying prasadam. – from Radha-Damodara Vilasa by Vaiyasaki Dasa

 

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When Jambavan Dasa was just becoming a devotee, Jayananda would bring him a plate of prasadam so big that he thought he could never eat it all. When he finally did finish the plate, Jayananda immediately put an identical plate down before him. “I can't eat that,” said Jambavan. “Srila Prabhupada said that we should eat 'til we waddle like a duck,” said Jayananda. Jambavan would finish the second plate. – from Remembering Jayananda by Kalakantha Dasa

 

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During the Sunday feast, Jayananda would help serve prasadam to all the guests and devotees until everyone was stuffed and the buckets were pretty well empty. Then he would sit down and deeply relish the ecstasy of feasting on Krishna prasadam with great joy. Afterwards, he made sure the pots and kitchen cleaning were getting done, usually leading the endeavor hands-on. Then, if there was a measurable amount of prasadam left over, he would round up a few eager devotees and we would take the remaining foodstuffs to the streets with accompanying devotional chanting. A very sweet opportunity, praising God and distributing free sanctified foods just like Lord Chaitanya wanted ... I always chose to go, when possible, for once I had begun book distribution at the airport there were not as many opportu­nities for me to engage in street chanting with Jayananda's hari-nama party. I missed the collective spirit special to these efforts. – Dhanistha Dasi

 

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Once I was sitting with Jayananda in the prasadam room in the Valencia Street temple in San Francisco and two French devotees were talking about different diets. Then they finished their prasadam and left and Jayananda said to me, “You know, Hanuman, I've tried all these diets and the only thing that seems to work is, don't eat too much and work hard!” – Hari-bol! Hanumat Preshaka Swami

 

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Jayananda worshiped prasadam. When a little prasad spilled on the floor, he would always bend down on all fours and lick it up.* He loved to cook, offer, distribute and eat prasad in a big way. He would always take prasad with him and distribute it, whether he was making a bhoga run (buying bulk foods from the market) or taking a chanting party downtown. He would even say “prasadam” in a special way that made you immediately want to take some. – from Remembering Jayananda by Kalakantha Dasa

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* This was a traditional practice, since prasadam is considered sacred, and temple floors are kept spotlessly clean.