Hare Krishna dear devotees!!
I want to know whether one should refrain from taking soft drinks if he/she has to advance in Krishna Consciousness? Does soft drinks dilute our god consciousness?
Your aspiring servant,
Gourab.
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Replies
There are worst things than soft drinks but in the end, it's all sense gratification of the tongue. I will tell you my experience. I was drinking a lot of Diet Coke, thinking I could loose weight that way and be content with soda drinks. But I totally lost my taste for water and as we know, Krsna is the taste of water (Gita). So why not have a nice cool water instead of all that karmi-type food: soft drinks...
Now, I don't notice the lack of soft drinks. I used to accept coffee and tea from friends, fearful that if I refused, I would be impolite and hurt their feelings. Now if offered coffee or tea, I always say. "Water is fine, thank you." That way, I don't offend Krsna and I don't offend my friends. If they are friends, they will understand you are Hare Krsna and there are certain things you don't do.
Hare Krishna if you want my advice just make it abrupt and stop using this poison! It is plain and simple poison, from a factory made with zero love and devotion, way too much sugar causes diabetes and dehydration, the fizzy in the drink is a chemical which is bad for you and if it is coke then it is so much worse phosphoric acid and caffeine there is no question that all of this is going to affect our Consciousness badly what to speak of God consciousness and an attempt to use Pravritti marg or Nivitti marg to explain this away is quite misguided in my opinion.
It is quite simply a product of the mode of Ignorance if you feel I am being fanatical with all due respect I believe that this is unfortunately due to becoming de-sensitised due to over exposure to advertising and modern popular culture.
If you want to offer nice fizzy, sweet drinks to Krishna there will be a natural and traditional way to prepare such a drink and then if you take the prasadam from this offering you will become happy and Krishna conscious and can then follow the path of Pravritti Marg or regulated attachment.
Nivritti Marg is not recommended by Srila Prabhupada as far as I am aware, so please try that at your own risk only. I would not recommend it at all. Rather become attached to serving Krishna with love and devotion and your life will become sublime, but offering poison to Krishna is not a part of this simple to follow process, please ask senior devotees to correct me if I am mistaken or if you feel I am offensive.
I am simply hoping to help with this doubt as i have had personal experience that many devotees think nothing of offering these things to Krishna and it hurts me very much to see them misleading others in this way also I did not enjoy the effect that taking this kind of Prasadam had on my own consciousness or health. Thank you very much
your Servant.
Bhakta Francis.
Hare Krishna Bhakta Francis,
You seem very health conscious. I like that. I am a health freak myself. I alike to offer the best to Krishna.
It is sad that most Krishna conscious followers think little of health. Perhaps this is part of Indian culture, tainting Krishna Consciousness in the west.
I feel sad, when they bring GMOs and poison tainted Strawberries (worst pesticides used on these, many farm workers die of cancer, simply by handling them, every year)
I proposed that we bring organic food to the congregation. No one was interested. I said, if we dont offer the best to Krishna, who will? I suggested that we buy from costco, now that so many things are available organic. Wheat floor is same price as GMO wheat floor in Indian grocery store. So what is the problem?
Many are doctors and engineers. Nobody is interested in health. Health to them means having good health insurance, being able to go to a doctor when they get sick.
One senior matiji suggested, that you can offer organic to Krishna, but you can bring anything here, because this is for the devotees.
You want to feed GMO poisons to devotees? You can really see Kali's influence on the practicing Sadakas.
Is Krishna separate from His devotees?
Gaurab Prabhu, soft drink didnt used to be a big issue when they used cane sugar. Now it contains artificially modified corn sugar, fructose, which is bad for our body long term. In the United States it is much worse because, the source is GMO corn. Which is poison. Scientists say that it is only poison to bugs. Not humans however. So be it. I am not going to eat bug poison.
With that said, I would like to add that we must focus more on things that help in moving rapidly towards Krishna Consciousness, like for example Congregation Chanting of Holy Names of Krishna, rather than worrying about things like this. If you are health conscious, then naturally you want to avoid these. If you are not health conscious I dont want to waste my time preaching you on this matter, if you dont have respect for your body.
I logged in after years into ISKCON desire tree simply to thank you, Prabhu.. wonderful explanation when I googled about offering soft drinks to Krishna. thanks to you :) your servant, divya
Hare Krishna prabhu I am so happy to hear this! It is Krishna's mercy that I am able to have such nice association on this website! I feel very grateful that you responded in this way, please accept my obeisances and forgive my challenging tone. I am your servant. Hare krishna.