One may think, “Well, Krishna devotees are assuming that God eats. But since God is spiritual, not material like us, how can He eat?”
This is a good question. Krishna is spiritual, of course. But we have to understand what that means. If we try to figure out God on the power of our own intelligence, we may arrive at our idea of God in this way: “Spiritual is just the opposite of material; as we have material bodies which limit us, so God must be spiritual and unlimited by anybody. As I have hands and feet, so God must be without hands and feet. I have eyes, ears, a nose, and a tongue, and God must be eyeless, earless, noiseless, and tongueless and so on.”
Nearly everyone speculates like this, and that’s why so many people have been led to believe that God is impersonal or void. Thus the idea of God’s eating becomes difficult to understand. Also, numerous saints, who were once represented by marble statues and paintings, have gradually been pulled down in many churches.
But we should consider, first of all, the worth of this speculative process. Since we are limited by our material bodies, how, by means of speculation, are we to have knowledge about an area far beyond the scope of our senses? Since we are enclosed in these material forms, we are conditioned by defective senses, by a propensity for error, by a tendency to be illusioned, and by a propensity to cheat. With these defects, we can hardly figure out God.
Unless we meet an authority who can give us definite information about God, we cannot know anything about Him. We can only have vague negative ideas. Because we thus are in need, Krishna Himself delivered positive knowledge about Himself to His disciples like Lord Brahma and Arjuna, and arranged to have such knowledge handed down through an unbroken chain of perfect spiritual authorities. We can therefore read in Bhagavad-gita that Krishna says to Arjuna, “I am unborn, and My transcendental body never deteriorates” (Bg. 4.6).
He further states that the form which He displayed 5,000 years ago on this earth is His own original and transcendental form – not an assumed material form, like our own. Krishna is not embodied; He is not a spiritual spark covered by a material body. Rather, He is His own spiritual form, eternal and always young.
Thus, according to information from the spiritual chain of authority, God is equipped with all senses – sight, touch, taste, smell, etc. But His senses are spiritual. If we think about it, we can understand how this teaching makes much more sense than the impersonal conclusion.
Krishna is the Absolute Truth. This means that He is the origin or source of everything; whatever we can experience, spiritual or material, is an emanation from Him. Therefore, our own mind, senses and intelligence are all creations of the Absolute Truth. This means that the Absolute Truth is not without mind, senses or intelligence. He is not impersonal. If He were lacking in senses or in intelligence, He would be less than His own creation. The very word “created” indicates that He has transcendental intelligence. Because Krishna is a person, we are persons.
When a father begets a child, that child is equipped with hands and legs because the father has them. The child also has senses because his father has senses. Therefore, sometimes it is said that man is made in the likeness of God. We have senses because Krishna, the Original Father, has senses.
But because Krishna’s senses are spiritual, they are not limited in the way that ours are limited. In our material body, each sense can only perform its own proper function, but in the transcendental figure of Krishna, each and every limb possesses in itself the full-fledged functions of all the other organs. Each sense can perform the functions of all the rest. This means that He can walk with His hands, see with His hands, or eat with His eyes.
In Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says that He impregnated all living entities into the womb of material nature by His glance. This is the nature of the Lord’s spiritual form. Thus when we offer food to the Lord and he hears our prayers and sees the food on the altar, that seeing and hearing are wholly identical with His eating and enjoying the food. In this way, Krishna accepts our offering and eats it.
The remnants of food offered to Krishna are called prasadam. Prasadam means mercy. Krishna accepts the offering of food and then returns it to His devotee as His mercy, for Krishna Himself becomes the food which was offered to Him. Because the food is in contact with Krishna, it becomes spiritualised, Krishna-ised. Such food is transcendental, completely free from contact with the modes of goodness, passion and darkness. Prasadam is karma-less food, and anyone who takes Krishna prasadam advances in spiritual life. One may try to attain the Supreme by an assault of mental speculation, or by drilling the respiration, etc. But what is so nice and as easy as reaching the supreme destination simply by eating?
Because food offered to Krishna is prepared with love and devotion for the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is accepted by His mercy after it had been offered to Him, no karma attaches itself to the food because nowhere is there any sense gratification or material desire. In preparing, in offering and eating Krishna prasadam, a person remains fixed in the transcendental position, absorbed in Brahman, spirit, and undeluded by the modes of nature. Eating in this way is the actual attainment of yoga. “A person is said to have attained to yoga,” Krishna says, “when, having renounced all material desires, he neither acts for sense gratification nor engages in furtive activities” (Bg. 6.4).
Renunciation is essential for any person serious about spiritual advancement. If a person claims to be engaged in yoga or spiritual development but does not firmly engage in renunciation of furtive activities and sense gratification, he is a cheater or is being cheated by a cheater. Somehow or other, one must prevent the senses from engaging in material activities of sense gratification. This is taught by all authorities, including Lord Sri Krishna, Lord Buddha, Lord Jesus Christ, Sripada Sankaracarya, etc.
Once upon a time, many ages ago, a great devotee named Dhruva Maharaja practised very severe yoga to realise God in six months. First, he ate only fruits and berries every third day, and in the second month he ate dry grass and leaves every sixth day; in this way, he progressed to taking only a little water every sixth day, and finally, he was taking a breath of air every 12 days. In this way, Dhruva Maharaja renounced sense gratification and realised God. Now, in this age, it is impossible for us to practise such severe austerities to control the senses. Who can do it, or even take the first steps? Therefore Krishna does not instruct, “Don’t eat.” Rather, He says, “Eat Krishna prasadam.” Eat sumptuously, and in that way renounce sense gratification and furtive activities.
Any person can prepare, offer and eat Krishna prasadam even at home, without inconvenience. Such a wonderful activity is very simple. It is the perfection of eating, and it is “everlasting and joyfully performed”.