The Maha-prasadam Thief

[Names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.]

"...Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu made this process very easy: He asked people simply to chant

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

and to engage in the devotional service of the Lord and eat the remnants of foodstuff offered to the Deity. One who is directly engaged in all these devotional activities is to be understood as having studied all Vedic literature..."

Bhagavad-gita 16.24, Srila Prabhupada's purport

"...I would always sit up toward the front, near Prabhupada, anxious to receive some remnants from his plate. Once I was lucky enough to get a sweetball, which I saved on the corner of my plate to relish at the end of my meal. But my Godbrother Jaya Gopala had also been eyeing the sweetball. Suddenly he reached over and stole it, plopping it into his mouth in one swift action. I became furious, and because he had no remnants for me to steal in return, I began to twist his arm in anger, completely forgetting that Prabhupada was siting right in front of us. Prabhupada asked, "What is going on?" "Jaya Gopala just stole my sweetball!" Prabhupada replied, "Very good, he has just made great advancement." Everyone laughed. Then all the devotees began stealing each other's prasadam...."

From Servant of the Servant by HH Tamal Krishna Gosvami

"When maha-prasada is not available, there must be fasting, but when the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly orders one to take prasada, neglecting such an opportunity is offensive."

Cc Madhya 2.114

Copyright: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

Many years ago, I was on a Hare Krishna farm. One day, while working in Krishna's kitchen, I learned that there were maha sweets kept in the big fridge over night. The next day, I told my friend and Godbrother about this and we began to plan a caper. It was so easy—we simply went down to the kitchen about 2 am and slid open the window on the side of the building. We went inside and grabbed the sweets out of the fridge. Oh, if you've ever had milk sweets made from Krishna's whole milk that were offered with love then you may understand. If not, I can only tell you they are wonderful! We couldn't imagine how anyone, especially a devotee, could leave them in a fridge over night. So we began to hit the place about every couple of weeks. We felt not to would be offensive!

Then one night we snuck to the kitchen, but found bars on the window. I felt bad because we had found the window locked a few nights earlier and accidentally broke it—just a little—in our attempt to get the lock undone. But since we found the window barred, we had to go through the door, which turned out to be easy too. The maha tasted especially good that morning, and I remember the bliss I felt having stolen the sweets. We kept hitting the place once or twice a week, then giving it a few weeks for things to cool down. One night, we got into the kitchen alright, but we found a small chain and padlock around the fridge. We about fell over laughing! It was very easy to break and repair.

Once after a Sunday feast, we found six five-gallon buckets of sweet rice. Since they had already been offered to Krishna, we stole one when no one was looking and tried to honor the whole five gallons in one sitting. Eventually, we gave up and put the remainder in the creek to keep cool. Then we returned to the Temple just in time for the Feast. I don't know how, but we both honored a big plate of prasadam. I became very concerned that there would not be enough sweet rice to go around, but once the feast was over, we were glad to see half a bucket left over. We stole that too! Every day for a while, we honored the sweet rice prasadam, until we couldn't hold another drop. Now you might be thinking, "What rascals"—who's to blame you?

If you have ever had sweet rice, made from whole milk by the best cooks in ISKCON, you'd of stolen it too! We did have a problem since we had two five-gallon buckets and a lid. If anyone saw us with these, they'd know we had stolen them. So we buried them down by the creek.

One night, we went to the kitchen to do a caper. We had a little white pick up truck and drove it down to the kitchen. The kitchen was kind of down a hill, pretty far away from the other buildings and pretty much hidden by the woods. That morning, we got through the door ok, but found a huge chain around the fridge, with a huge padlock. We had to drive up to the equipment building to get the acetylene torch. We had no problem finding it and were back at the kitchen in moments, cutting that huge chain and retrieving a large plate of the most tasty maha milk sweets for our reward. They were much bigger than usual.

We always tried to make it look like no one had been there, even the broken window could be explained away, we thought. But now we had crossed a line. Now on it, would be "do or die." We hurried to put the torch back and drove to a high hill overlooking Krishna's Temple.

It was so blissful that morning, sharing scriptures about prasadam and talking about how this kind of greed was good for us. I felt that one would have to be a fool not to steal this maha. It had become my greatest addiction.

A few weeks later, we just had to do it again. So we carefully planned it all out, picking up an acetylene torch before we went down there. When we got there, we found a metal door guarding the wooden kitchen door. I think I remember my partner-in-crime had helped install it. Anyway, it was just for looks and the door easily came off. Afterward, we replaced everything. Everywhere I went the devotees were talking about "the maha-prasadam thieves."

We decided to lay low for a while—we even swore off doing it. But within a few weeks our desire became too big for us. We found ourselves back at the kitchen's metal door, but to our amazement, the hinges were welded. What to do? We decided to use our truck and push the door enough to pop it open. Well, we bent the metal door and the door behind it! Nonetheless, we finished our quest and made off with the maha.

That morning I felt bad and even helped fix the doors. I felt bad, too, because the head cook was in such anxiety. All the devotees were cursing the thieves, but I managed to keep a look of innocence and even managed a smile. I felt terrible! But, I also knew that I could not stop.

One morning, our desire for sweets got the best of us once again. We got everything and drove down to Krishna's kitchen. To our surprise, we found the doors ajar. We found the chain around the fridge and when I turned for the torch, we were jumped by five devotees. One had a shotgun. We were tied up and forced to chant Hare Krishna at the top of our lungs until the guru woke at 3:30 am.

We were taken before his lotus feet. The guru said, "So, it was you two this whole time?. Stop pointing that gun and untie them," the guru told our captors, "Why haven't you devotees tried to steal the maha? What gives you the right to tie these two up?" He turned his attention to us, "You two are the most advanced bhaktas I've ever met. You work all day doing service and hard at night stealing maha. But—now you've been caught. No more stealing the maha!"

We were set free and the matter was to be forgotten. We paid our obeisances to our guru and went to mangala-arati. I felt that getting caught was somehow blissful. That Friday morning, I was told to report to the guru's house at 5:00 pm. All day, I worried about what kind of punishment was in store for me? When I got there and saw my partner-in-crime, I really thought we were in for it.

We were directed to the hall and were told to sit down. The hall was large and used for honoring prasada at noon by the working crews. The guru entered and we paid our obeisances. When we sat back down, he had a big smile. Then this mataji entered the hall carrying a whole offering of maha-prasadam. She gave us plates and filled each with maha.

I asked our guru, "Aren't you going to have some?" "No, I just want to watch you relish this. You two bhaktas must have maha or you'll go crazy." He joined us after persistent requests. We were instructed to come every Friday at 5:00 pm. Around the end of our meal, the guru rose to go back upstairs. We paid our obeisances and the mataji gave us maha-maha-prasadam from the guru's own plate.

We could not believe our great fortune. All the maha-sweets we could eat every Friday—and personal association with the guru. This was bliss beyond words. We returned every Friday for years. I'm sad, but also happy to say, that as I moved around ISKCON, I stole maha-prasadam many times. It seems to be my heart and soul. Now in prison, I dream of it. Guess, I'll always be The Maha-prasadam Thief!

"When taking maha-prasadam, one should not consider the food ordinary preparations. Prasada means favor. One should consider maha-prasadam a favor of Krishna... Krishna eats many nice varieties of food and offers the food back to the devotees, so that not only are one's demands for various tastes satisfied, but by eating prasadam one makes advancement in spiritual life."

Cc Antya 11.20 Purport