Prabhupada: "Pradyumna, give him little, this one here. George Harrison: Oh, no, no. Please, no more. I'm really full. I won't have to eat for a few days. (laughter) Prabhupada: Sweets. George Harrison: Very well. Prabhupada: Sweet will help you digest. Don't give three--at least four. George Harrison: I won't be able to eat much more. Prabhupada: Three is given to the enemy. According to our Indian system, if you give somebody three, that means he is enemy. George Harrison: Oh, really? I always liked the number three. Prabhupada: (laughs) You must give at least four. George Harrison: I like three, five, seven, nine. Those numbers. Prabhupada: Bring some fruit. What are the three enemies? Kama, krodha... Pradyumna: Lobha. Gurudasa: Lust, anger, greed. Prabhupada: Three enemies--lusty desire, anger and greediness. George Harrison: Yes. But there's a lot of nice threes. Prabhupada: Yes. Just like Brahma, Visnu, Mahesvara. Three worlds, sankha, martya, padma. Trinity. These are nice things." Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, 07-26-76, London

The Sunday ‘Love Feasts’ go back to the very beginning of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON period, which began in the mid-1960’s. He introduced this weekly festival as part of his overall preaching program. In those days, I was a young man and a new devotee, out on the streets on a daily basis preaching with very little in the way of books or paraphernalia. Everyone we could stop long enough to engage would be enthusiastically invited to attend the Sunday Feast.

As young devotees, we were insatiably attracted to Krsna prasadam. Srila Prabhupada had introduced us to the regulative principles of controlling sex life and eating, and these daily austerities were challenging for many of the neophyte devotees. As a result, the Sunday Feasts were anticipated with great relish. Very opulent preparations were prepared, in great quantity and variety. Of course, when one is out preaching, it seems that if just a fraction of the people you invited came to the feast, there wouldn’t be enough prasada to go around. This seldom proved to be true, or course, but we made large quantities nonetheless. On more than one occasion, we would sit down to “preach” with more feast prasada on our plates than there was on the guest’s plates! In hindsight, I think some of the guests came just to watch us eat, because we did so with such joyful abandon.

Like the devotees, many of the guests were searching for an alternative to mainstream society. Attending such a wonderful feast and getting the Lord’s mercy in Krsna prasadam was a great surprise and an experience that they couldn’t get anywhere else. Not only was the feast awesome, the whole atmosphere of chanting, dancing, etc. was fascinating.

Srila Prabhupada was brilliant in understanding the need to be able to invite those who we were preaching to, to come to the temple. Of course they were also welcome to come any other time, but most were more inclined to come when there was going to be a special event, and a crowd of ‘outsiders’ which made them feel more comfortable. All in all it was a grand success, and many people joined Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON as a result of these festivals. Over the years, I’ve reflected on how expert Srila Prabhupada was in all aspects of his preaching strategy, and what an important ingredient the Sunday Loves Feast was and is to our total presentation of Krsna Consciousness.

Rocana dasa