We, as human beings, are living at the mercy of nature. The sunlight, the water, the fruits, the vegetables — everything that we require to sustain our life from day to day is provided by nature.

But nature is not acting automatically. We have to ask, “Whose nature?” Just like we have a friend, and we say, “Oh, their nature is to be very happy.” Or we have another friend, and “his nature is always morose.” When we speak of nature, we have to ask, “Whose nature?” And the answer is: Krishna’s nature. It is God’s nature. This is His nature to be magnanimous and to support and nourish all His children.

When devotees cook, we cook with the idea that we are going to accept Krishna’s nature — the fruits, the vegetables, milk, the grains. Everything we accept, we take the ingredients and prepare them in a special way and offer them to Krishna, just as a servant would take the ingredients the master provides, prepare them and offer them to the master at the table. When the master is done eating, whatever is left over, the servant accepts as his food. That is called prasadam, or the mercy of Krishna.

Gadadhara das explains why devotees wear tilaka, or the clay marking on their bodies, and Damodar das demonstrates how to wear it.

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