When Gokulananda (Krsna) went to the meadows, Queen Yasoda became eager to prepare His meal, so she engaged everyone in the house. Although all the people in her house were busily engaged in their duties and were all excited with love for Krsna, still Yasoda, bathed by the nectar of affection for her son, directed them all. She told her maidservants: “0 Girls! My boy will now return from the barn with Balarama, skinny and hungry, so quickly start cooking! Bring spinach, radish, golden flowers, mung dal, fruits, leaves, ginger, ground nuts, sour spices, turmeric, pepper, camphor, sugar, cumin seeds, cream, tamarind, hing, honey, Jati fruits, cassia leaves, liquorice, cane sugar, ingredients for puddings, sea salt, coconut pulp, whole wheat, ghee, yoghurt, Tulasi-rice and whole rice, and bring milk from a cow that was sent here this morning by Nanda Maharaja. Bring all these items to the kitchen for preparation!”Being more affectionate than billions of mothers, Yasoda happily smelled Radhika’s head and kissed Her, while tears flowed from her eyes. She also embraced each of Radhika’s girlfriends and freely inquired from Radhika about Her welfare. Overwhelmed by affection for her son and eager to quickly arrange for His meal, she said: “O Girls! You are famous in Vraja for your expertise in making many sweet preparations! Cook nice food that will give appetite even to a small eater like my boy! 0 Girls! One of you must prepare salty dishes, someone must make a yoghurt-dressed dish, someone should cook in ghee and someone should cook in sugar!”
“ Dear Radhe! You are expert in cooking tasty dishes, so please go to my kitchen with Rohini and carefully prepare the best sweets and vegetables with her! O my daughter! Carefully prepare soft Amrta keli and Karpura keli pies that are millions of times sweeter and tastier than nectar! Who else in the three worlds but You knows how to prepare such things that makes Krsna eager to eat?”
“ Dear Girl! Prepare that Piyusa granthi pie that Krsna likes so much and carefully put this in five kinds of nectar with a drink of cardamom and camphor!”
“ Mother Lalite! Make condensed milk with sugar and camphor!
Visakhe! Quickly make lemonade!
Sasilekhe! Make Sikharini (a yoghurt drink)!
Daughter Campakalate! Make buttermilk!
0h Tungavidye! Daughter! Make Amliksa (milk drink) mixed with all suitable ingredients of different varieties!
Mother Citre! Make Matsyandira (a sugar candy drink)!
Vasanti! Make white sugar cake!
Mangale! Make Jilepis (sweets)!
Kadambari! Make camphor pie!
Sudevi! Make sweet rice!
Rangadevi! Make cane sugar-pie!
Lasike! Make laddus of sugar; ground rice and grapes!
Kaumudi! Make many kinds of puns!
Mother Madalase! Make moon white cakes!
Sasimukhi! Carefully make sweet rice with curd!
Sumukhi! You make tasty sweet pie!
Manimati! Make different cakes of ground rice!
Daughter Kancana valli! Make laddus of whole wheat in ghee!
Manorame! Make Manohara-laddus!
Ratnamale! Make Moticura laddus!
Madhavi! Make sesame sweets by frying huskless sesame-seeds! Then you can cut a square sesame-pie!
Vindhye! Make a basket shaped sweet pie by frying whole wheat and barley first in ghee and then in sugarwater! Then you can make a split pea pie!
Rambhe! You make Karambha (cornmeal mixed with yoghurt) with banana?s cooked in sugar, on a golden plate!
Manojne! Squeeze out ripe mangoes and keep them in condensed milk with sugar!
0 Kilimbe! Make ghee from the milk which was taken from the cow named Sugandha this morning and from which I churned yoghurt!
Ambike! Slowly stir the milk that King Nanda personally milked from the cow named Dhavala and which he sent here for Krsna and Balarama’s consumption!”
Dear Girls! Swiftly go to my milk-storehouse, which is filled with big sifting spoons, clay pots and wooden bowls!
Dhanisthe! Take all these items from the storerooms and put them in suitable vessels for preparation!
Rangana Malike! Go to the storehouse with Tulasi and quickly get all the required ingredients and place them before your maidservants where they are going to be prepared!
lndumukhi! Take the plums, mangoes, pomegranates, Karira, Amalaki, Limpaka lemons, Badari and Rucaka fruits, and roots like ginger, that have been kept in salt and oil for many days and make them into very tasty pickles, as well as the Tamarind, mangoes, Amalaki, Badari and berries that have been kept in candy water for many days, out of the storeroom and put them on golden plates!
Dear Sande, Subhe, Bharani, Pibari and Mistahaste! Please Girls! Quickly take the best milk, which was taken from the meadows by the servants, on the stoves and start stirring it!”
Sri Gandharvika (Radhika) took off Her veil, rings and ornaments and handed them to Tulasi. She washed Her hands and feet with water handed by Dhanistha. Then she bowed down to Rohini, who lovingly embraced Her as if she was her own daughter-in-law, and entered the kitchen.
When all the gopis thus bloomed with joy and went to work, Mother Yasoda anxiously told her servants: “ Dear Payoda! Place the water, which was brought from the Yamuna yesterday evening and which has been kept in new pots covered with sheets and that is scented with kunkuma, aguru, camphor and sandal, kept cool with soft breezes and moonbeams, and kept in special potholders, around the moonstone bathing dais which is sprinkled with water! 0 Varida! Scent Krsna and Balarama’s drinking water pots with aguru-smoke, jasmine, camphor, cloves and roses!”
“ Young Barber boy Sugandha! Bring the Narayana oil which cures innumerable diseases and nourishes the body, and which has been used by the physician Kalyanada, from my room, for massaging Krsna.”
“Subandha and Karpuraka! Quickly get the cool and fragrant Udvartana unguent and the Kalka unguent made of ground Amalaki for the hair!”
“Saranga! Quickly press the thin, white overclothes for bathing and the fresh, silken golden clothes scented with fragrant powder for wearing after bathing!”
“Bakula! Bring the red turban, the golden shirt, red underwear and the multicoloured sash, the four kinds of traditional dress in Vraja, here, and press the Raucika-dresses, that are fit for dancing and were expertly sewn in different colours with broken and unbroken threads!”
“Dear Sugandha Vilasa Gandhini! Carefully fill up the pearl gem-studded boxes with unguents such as catuh sama, that consists of vermilion, aloe, sandal and camphor!”
“Talika! Grind Gorocana (a yellow pigment) for applying Krsna’s tilaka! Sucitra! Grind minerals from Govardhana Hill for drawing pictures on Krsna’s face! Puspahasa, Sumanah and Makaranda! Quickly make a garland of Naga Kesara, Vasanti, golden Yuthi and other flowers and scent it with black aloe and camphor!”
“Sairindhra, MaIm, Makaranda and Bhrngin! Take all the golden jewel studded ornaments that the goldsmiths Rangana and Tankana have lovingly made after many days of hard work, following my great zeal, and have handed me last evening, out of the storeroom! Today Sunday is in the Pusya-constellation, so they will bring amrta (nectar or immortality), so ornament my boys with them!”
“Dear Boy Salika! Make a crest of fresh peacock feathers! Mallika! Make different nice strings of red and white gunja-berries! Jambula! Quickly cut the bad piece from this golden betel leaf with scissors and clean the good piece with a fine cloth! Suvilasini! Quickly scent fresh betel nuts with camphor after crushing them with a nutcracker and moistening them with milk, flaking them like Dhatri-leaves! Rasala and Visalakhya! Make pan with ground cardamom, catechu and cloves that are cleansed with a cloth!”
Hearing mother Yasoda’s order, the servants went to their work and mother, casting her eyes down the road to see if her sons were coming back, asked a carrier coming back from the meadows: “Is Krsna coming? Why is He so late?”
The perfection of this devotees Archana is to one day be allowed to assist Mother Yasoda in Her service to Krsna
