This is another amusing pastime between Lord Caitanya and Advaita Acarya over amounts of prasadam one can eat. Also some good tips by Srila Prabhupada are given about new preps devotees can make for their Deities.
Madhya 3.38–Advaita Ācārya said, “You have been fasting continuously for three days in Your ecstasy of love for Kṛṣṇa. I therefore invite You to My home, where You may kindly take Your alms. Come with Me to My residence.”
Madhya 3.39–Advaita Prabhu continued, “At My home I have just cooked one palmful of rice. The vegetables are always very simple. There is no luxurious cooking-simply a little liquid vegetable and spinach.”
Madhya 3.42––All the prepared food was divided into three equal parts. One part was arranged on a metal plate for offering to Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Madhya 3.43–Of the three divisions, one was arranged on a metal plate, and the other two were arranged on plantain leaves. These leaves were not bifurcated, and they were taken from a banana tree that held at least thirty-two bunches of bananas. The two plates were filled very nicely with the kinds of food described below.
Madhya 3.44-The cooked rice was a stack of very fine grains nicely cooked, and in the middle was yellow clarified butter from the milk of cows. Surrounding the stack of rice were pots made of the skins of banana trees, and in these pots were varieties of vegetables and mung dāl.
Madhya 3.45–Among the cooked vegetables were paṭolas, squash, mānakacu and a salad made with pieces of ginger and various types of spinach.
Madhya 3.46–There was sukhta, bitter melon mixed with all kinds of vegetables, defying the taste of nectar. There were five types of bitter and pungent sukhtas.
Madhya 3.47–Amongst the various vegetables were newly grown leaves of nimba trees fried with eggplant. The fruit known as paṭola was fried with phulabaḍi, a kind of dāl preparation first mashed and then dried in the sun. There was also a preparation known as kuṣmāṇḍa-mānacāki.
PURPORT-We request our editors of cook books to add all these nice preparations described by the experienced author Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmī.
Madhya 3.48–The preparation made with coconut pulp mixed with curd and rock candy was very sweet. There was a curry made of banana flowers and squash boiled in milk, all in great quantity.
Madhya 3.49-There were small cakes in sweet and sour sauce and five or six kinds of sour preparations. All the vegetables were so made that everyone present could take prasāda.
Madhya3.50-There were soft cakes made with mung dāl, soft cakes made with ripe bananas, and soft cakes made with urad dāl. There were various kinds of sweetmeats, condensed milk mixed with rice cakes, a coconut preparation and every kind of cake desirable.
Madhya 3.51–All the vegetables were served in pots made of banana leaves taken from trees producing at least thirty-two bunches of bananas. These pots were very strong and big and did not tilt or totter.
Madhya 3.52–All around the three eating places were a hundred pots filled with various kinds of vegetables.
Madhya 3.60–Śrī Advaita Prabhu said, “My dear Lords, kindly enter this room.” The two brothers, Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu, then came forward to take the prasāda.
Madhya3.64–Advaita Ācārya took Lord Nityānanda Prabhu and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu within the room, and the two Lords saw the arrangement of the prasāda. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was especially very much pleased.
PURPORT-Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was pleased because He saw how nicely so many varieties of food were prepared for Kṛṣṇa. Actually all kinds of prasāda are prepared for Kṛṣṇa, not for the people, but the devotees partake of prasāda with great pleasure.
Madhya 3.65–Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu approved of all the methods employed in cooking and offering food to Kṛṣṇa. Indeed, He was so pleased that He said, “Frankly, I will personally take the lotus feet of anyone who can offer Kṛṣṇa such nice food and place those lotus feet on My head birth after birth.”
Madhya 3.70–Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “It is not proper for a sannyāsī to eat such a variety of foods. If he does, how can he control his senses?”
Madhya 3.71–When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not accept the food that had already been served, Advaita Ācārya said, “Please give up Your concealment. I know what You are, and I know the confidential meaning of Your accepting the sannyāsa order.”
Madhya 3.72–Advaita Ācārya thus requested Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to eat and give up juggling words. The Lord replied, “I certainly cannot eat so much food.”
Madhya 3.75–In this connection Advaita Ācārya referred to Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s eating at Jagannātha Purī. Lord Jagannātha and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu are identical. Advaita Ācārya pointed out that at Jagannātha Purī Caitanya Mahāprabhu ate fifty-four times a day, and each time He ate many hundreds of pots of food.
Madhya 3.76– Śrī Advaita Ācārya said, “The amount of food that three people can eat does not constitute even a morsel for You. In proportion to that, these edibles are not even five morsels of food for You.”
Some Conclusions—This is a very amusing pastime of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu . He is trying to act like a sanyasi yet Advaita Acarya knows He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and can eat any amount given to Him, what to speak of what Advaita Acaryas wife had prepared. Advaita Acarya gives the example of Jagannatha Puri where 54 times a day preparations are given to the Lord, so what is this paltry amount He (Advaita ) has prepared for Him to eat?There is another pastime where Advaita Acarya calls Lord Nityananda a reject Paramahamsa, all in joking. And then there is Their water fight in the ganges where Nityananda splashes Advaita Acarya in the eyes and apparantly wins that “duel”.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das