Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

Bring a nice offered dish with you. Perhaps some delicious sweet. Give your host/hostess a Bhagavad-gita As It Is also as a gift. See this as an opportunity and not as a difficulty.

I already gave BG and prasadam and the reason of the invitation was to say thank you to me, but I can bring more prasadam anyway :)
and at the same time Krsna knows how much I suffer eating bhoga so maybe it wont be so bad. Thank you for the help!!!

You can explain to them that you do not eat cooked food that is not offered to Krishna.
So, they can offer you some kind of cheese veggie brand, salad, fruit juice, nuts, etc, explain to them, they will understand. And then you can quickly offer that before you take.
One time I was with such a nice family and they offered me coke, and I was like you, not willing to disrupt, it was so nice it felt like not saying anything.
I drank it and felt so sick.. Next time I explained to them and to whoever offers me coke how sick I become if I yield, cause its more than 30 yrs I do not drink that stuff.
In this way you save your "skin" and preach at the same time.

Ask if you can bring some transcendental entertainment! I have found the Parikrama series to be a great way to share with non-devotees. Krishna.com has this series plus other wonderful dvds about the holy places we hold so dear - http://www.thekrishnastore.com/Search.bok?category=Video:Temples&bar=_shp_video

i think if you explain it they will understand and maybe even appreciate.
it is rare to find people with principles nowadays.

[quote][cite] shina:[/cite]so what do you recommend me to do? rejecting this invitation or doing a sacrifice and offer it in my mind for the sake of preaching?[/quote]

It depends on how good of a cook they are. :) (only joking) :)

My friends expect me to bring food

I have never come across anyone who didnt make allowance

usually the story is this, everyone wants it when they see it

biologically the body wants vegetarian food

its the crazy mind that desires the other stuff

the body wants food that provides nutrition

the crazed mind wants to enjoy the senses

take Prasadam, they should love it (refer to previous post)

get help here

http://food.krishna.com/node/102

and here

http://food.krishna.com/recipe

or perhaps I should be asking you for help

what will you take well help you choose

perhaps this one:

http://www.pariprashnena.com/discussion/213/perfect-recipe-for-halava-anyone/#Item_9

itll be great and you can take a photo of it for me I need one please : )

The point is that this person likes cooking and sees cooking as a good way of saying thank you to me. I keep giving him prasadam and he feels in debt and wants to invite me to eat vegetarian food, no garlic, no onion, no whatever I tell him but the offering part is what he doesnt understand. I tried to explain to him but he doesnt understand why we offer. He says that if Krsna doesnt need anything then why to offer. I reply because of the love exchange then he says "but at the end you will eat it"... I dont know what else to tell to him.

Go a little earlier (tell them in advance) and help them. At the end you offer with a little photo of Srila Prabhupada.

thats certainly a good option, helping with the cooking & offering the food in an unobtrusive way. its not the highest standard of worship, but youre not taking a salagram-sila, and the purpose is for preaching, so i dont see how SP would be offended or reject the offering.

its important that the person is a vegetarian, otherwise the utensils would be heavily contaminated.

if the helping & offering idea doesnt work out, or if SP doesnt want any of the cooked food, youll end up accepting a little of that persons karma; thats what happens if you accept someones service, or grains cooked by them w/o offering. then it depends how much you like the person, if youre willing to accept some of their reactions?

earlier, in some other thread, the question came up if devotees, especially in india, were eating outside vegetarian food, not cooked by devotees & not offered. my experience is that many do, including myself at times. its certainly not good, but it doesnt seem to affect those who indulge in it in a major or dramatic way.

much better than doing that for sense-gratification is doing it for preaching, and i wouldnt be too concerned about the reaction. pray to lord caitanya and make sure you try to use the opportunity to preach. (not by being too preachy, of course, that tends to turn people off.)