Food should be cooked with mantra and/or love. The vibrations of the person preparing the food enter into food cooked over fire. A Sanskrit mantra which can be used for preparing food is:
OM ANNAM BRAHMA RASO BISHMUR BHOKTA DEBO JANARDANAHI AWAEM GYANTWA TO YO BHUNKT ANN DOSHORN LIPYATE
which means: Food is Brahma. Its rasa (juice) is Vishnu. The whole world (Life Being) is its user. Having this thought makes ineffective the evils connected with this food.
(c) There is a state of mind suitable for taking of food—calmness. There is a Sufi say- ing: “If a person eats with anger, the food turns to poison.”
- Finally, consecrate the food you take. Such food is called prasad. Consecrating food means to offer the food up. Another way of saying this is that the taking of the food should be considered as part of one’s spiritual work of ???. In the West we sometimes say grace before meals. This is one form of consecrating the food. All you have to do now is continue to say grace, but now listen to it.
A Sanskrit consecration of food taken from the Bhagavad Gita is as follows:
BRAHMAPANAM - BRAHMA HAVIRE BRAHMAGNI - BRAHMAN A HOTA BRAHMAI - TAN - GANI BYAM
BRAHMA - KARMA - SAMADHINAH GURU BRAHMA - GURU VISHNU - GURU DAWVO MAHISH WARA
GURU SAKSHAT
PARAM BRAHMA TUS MA EE
SHRI GURU VEY NA MA HA
OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI
Translation: This ritual is Brahma. The food is Brahma. He who offers the food is