{"id":72583,"date":"2025-10-24T01:46:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/?p=72583"},"modified":"2025-10-23T10:02:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T04:32:56","slug":"a-friend-for-lunch-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/a-friend-for-lunch-3\/","title":{"rendered":"A Friend for Lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/srila_prabhupada_honoring_prasad_slideshow.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-26011 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/srila_prabhupada_honoring_prasad_slideshow-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/srila_prabhupada_honoring_prasad_slideshow-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/srila_prabhupada_honoring_prasad_slideshow.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\"><b>A friend for lunch<\/b><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Once a Vaishnava invited his friend for lunch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">He served him prasadam nicely and later inquired him about his devotional service. The friend got angry and said,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">\u201cWhat are you talking about? What devotional service? I don\u2019t believe in God, so why should I do service to Him?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">After hearing this from his friend, the Vaishnava was stunned. He started lamenting in front of the deity that he had made a blunder by inviting an atheist for prasadam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Then the Lord appeared before him and said:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">\u201cWhy are you lamenting for giving prasadam to just one atheist. Look at Me, for ages I have been feeding unlimited atheists of this world. Then how much lamentation will I have. Still, I take care of everybody like a father.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">In Bhagavad Gita 9.29 the Supreme Lord Krishna states,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">samo \u2018ham sarva-bhutesu\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">na me dvesyo \u2018sti na priyah<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">ye bhajanti tu mam bhaktya<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">mayi te tesu capy aham<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">\u201cI envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">The Lord considers every living entity as His son and as such He provides everyone with a generous supply of the necessities of life. He is just like a cloud which pours rain all over, regardless of whether it falls on rock or land or water. He has mercifully provided the basic necessities of life \u2013 like air and water in sufficient quantities for all living entities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">But for His devotees, He gives specific attention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">\u201cWhoever surrenders unto Me, proportionately I take care of him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">As obedient children of our Supreme Father, it is our utmost duty to follow His footsteps and treat everyone equally. When we serve prasadam to others we should never discriminate against them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Irrespective of whether they are good or bad, the prasadam has the potency to purify the impurities in their hearts and sow the seed of love for God-head.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">This is a section of the book \u201cOn a Silver Platter\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">To buy the complete book<\/span>,\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kadachaeditions.com\/art\/on-a-silver-platter-english\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">click here<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A friend for lunch Once a Vaishnava invited his friend for lunch. He served him prasadam nicely and later inquired him about his devotional service. The friend got angry and said,\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you talking about? &hellip; <a class=\"kt-excerpt-readmore\" href=\"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/a-friend-for-lunch-3\/\" aria-label=\"A Friend for Lunch\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":26011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,189],"tags":[211],"class_list":["post-72583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-kadacha-eng","tag-on-a-silver-platter-eng"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 17:46:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}