Question: When I cook in the morning, I think of what my kids like or my husband likes and then cook for Krishna. I feel that I am pretending here. I want to do it for Krishna, but I am cooking what my husband likes. On the other hand, if I think only about cooking for Krishna and not for the family, I feel that I am betraying them. Since I have a relationship with my husband, I want to cook for him with love. Because I am full of dirt, its difficult for me to understand and apply the principle. Please help me understand what I should be doing here to please Krishna.
Answer by Romapada Swami: The items which your husband likes are all items which Krishna also likes, correct? Meaning…they are all offerable sattvik items.
Next point: Serving a devotee of Krishna with genuine devotion is very pleasing to Krishna, correct?
The application is that you can prepare items with devotion to Krishna, to be offered to Krishna, then given lovingly to your husband. Krishna will be pleased, and your husband will also be pleased. He will be pleased even MORE by your Krishna-bhakti than by the tastiness of the cooking product.
Read Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.41-42.
Note especially the final paragraph of 42: “Her affection for the Pandavas and the Vrsnis is not out of the range of devotional service because the service of the Lord and the service of the devotees are identical. Sometimes service to the devotee is more valuable than service to the Lord. But here the affection of Kuntidevi for the Pandavas and the Vrsnis was due to family relation. This tie of affection in terms of material relation is the relation of maya because the relations of the body or the mind are due to the influence of the external energy. Relations of the soul, established in relation with the Supreme Soul, are factual relations. When Kuntidevi wanted to cut off the family relation, she meant to cut off the relation of the skin. The skin relation is the cause of material bondage, but the relation of the soul is the cause of freedom. This relation of the soul to the soul can be established by the via medium of the relation with the Supersoul. Seeing in the darkness is not seeing. But seeing by the light of the sun means to see the sun and everything else which was unseen in the darkness. That is the way of devotional service.”
