The Higher Taste is a great introduction to the philosophy and practice of vegetarianism, Hare Krishna style. It lets the reader discover the health and economic advantages, as well as the important ethical and spiritual considerations, of a Krishna conscious approach to diet and nutrition. Includes 70 scrumptious recipes.
His Divine Grace Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (अभय चरणारविन्द भक्तिवेदान्त स्वामी प्रभुपाद)was born as Abhay Charan De on 1 September 1896 in Calcutta, India.
He first met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, in Calcutta in 1922. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, a prominent devotional scholar and the founder of sixty-four branches of Gaudiya Mathas (Vedic institutes), liked this educated young man and convinced him to dedicate his life to teaching Vedic knowledge in the Western world. Srila Prabhupada became his student, and eleven years later (1933) at Allahabad, he became his formally initiated disciple.
At their first meeting, in 1922, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura requested Srila Prabhupada to broadcast Vedic knowledge through the English language. In the years that followed, Srila Prabhupada wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gita and in 1944, without assistance, started an English fortnightly magazine.
In the last ten years of his life, in spite of his advanced age, Srila Prabhupada circled the globe twelve times on lecture tours that have took him to six continents. In spite of such a vigorous schedule, Srila Prabhupada continued to write prolifically. His writings constitute a veritable library of Vedic philosophy, religion, literature and culture.
In a nutshell, it advocates vegetarian diet, supplemented with ample interesting recipes from around the globe.
Loved: 1. The precise anatomical and physiological differences between a carnivore, a herbivore and humans. 2. Environmental effects and the true cost of what we eat. 3. The recipes! While picking this book, I was skeptical about having recipes in a book when it is readily available from multiple sources. Somehow enjoyed exploring these.
Hated: 1. Dogmatic tone! 2. The logic given for the argument on killing plants vs killing animals! "Since the killed plants and flowers are offered to Krishna, and we only eat the remnants in the form of prasadam, we don't incur the sins of killing those plants and flowers." - Why not offer killed animals in the same manner? "Because Krishna has clearly mentioned to offer only fruits and flowers!"
Overall: Some of the non-intuitive marvelous vegetarian recipes was my biggest takeaway from this. Off course because I was already in sync with the ideologies of being a vegetarian before reading this.
This was the book that convinced me to stop eating meat. While I don't believe in the religion of the modern Krishna movement, the chapters on health and environment had the biggest impact on me. The recipes are really good, and most that have dairy can be easily veganized.
The recipes I've tried are good, easy and tasty, but this is not why that polite, hobo-looking Hare Krishna gave me this book. I'm not a vegetarian and this tome was obviously written to correct this. It focused my attention on the fact that we must take life and cause suffering, plant and animal, so that we can live. Whether this is bad karma, original sin or just inhumane depends on your religion but it is not 'good' in any way. Not practising a religion, I have no Jesus who'll forgive me and no Krishna to void my bad karma. I'm not yet sure what is the right path for me but I'm glad I found this book as it broadened my thinking.
This book contains an introduction to Hare Krishna beliefs and practices such as karma and food offering. It contains tracts about the ethical, spiritual, physical and physiological arguments against meat eating. It has some recipes. There are many interesting things in here, but there is a lot of buncombe. This buncombe is still very interesting and entertaining though. Worth a look.
I read this because as someone who is vegetarian it sounded interesting to learn some of the culture and history behind vegetarianism. Although this is an interesting book, it became way too spiritual and religious for me after a few chapters and it reads like an introduction to a cult.
A vegetarian diet is proven to have many health benefits and there are studies that have shown this, yet this book fails to cite a single source for any of the claims it makes. The only reason I know some of those claims are true is because I’ve read other books that actually cite those studies correctly. They also conveniently forget some critical information that could make their claims less impactful. For example p.8 they mention the fact that the animals we eat are fed antibiotics which obviously has disastrous health consequences on humans since our bodies become resistant to antibiotics. However they fail to mention that this is the case in the USA but has been forbidden in the EU for over 15 years.
From p.50 I stopped taking the book seriously. It’s fine to believe in karma if that’s a part of your culture, but it’s not fine to say that millions of people were killed in prison camps in WW2 due to karma, as a retribution for killing so many animals for food, nor is it okay to put women who have had an abortion in the same category as terrorists.
I’d recommend reading chapters 1 to 4 to gain some understanding of the benefits of a vegetarian diet, as well as some of the religious history behind it. From chapter 5-ish there are only spiritual claims without proof, some of which go way too far and are clearly inappropriate (did I mention how Hitler killed Jews because of karma?).
I bought this book years ago in 1997 when I was living the Krishna Conscious lifestyle. I loaned it to someone in 2000 and I never got it back. I picked it back up again at the Sri Sri Radha Krsna Lotus Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah last Saturday for the Holi Festival of colors: http://utahkrishnas.org/
Great recipes and highly informative. Definitely a good read for any vegetarian and/or those interested in Eastern spirituality.
Whew! If I wasn’t a vegetarian already, I definitely would be after reading this book… 😬 very damning tone throughout this book LOL but with good reason. Loved learning the author’s explanation of karma as related to food consumption. This will help me to become a more mindful, and joyful, eater.
This small cookbook is a nice little treatise on vegetarianism from a Hare Krishna perspective. The menus are decent, and draw from several different world cuisines. A bit above my culinary talents (I rarely cook, and don't like dealing with long lists of ingredients). I like Indian food, but haven't tried to cook it myself, but this book has step by step instructions even for making your own ghee, so maybe I will give it a try sometime. (4 stars b/c I've decided I'm only giving 5 stars to books that literally and materially change my life in some way, and since I still don't cook, this gets 4 stars...)
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first couple of chapters of the book. They were really interesting and held a lot of facts and statistics about vegetarianism and its benefits.
However, after the first 4 or so chapters it starts to be less about proven research and more about religion; how eating any form of food (be it plant or animal) was a sin - unless you offered it to God first. I'm atheist so it bored me to death and just sounded ridiculous.
I haven't tried any of the recipes but they sound delicious. It would have been nice to have photos accompanying the recipes.
I reread passages of this book to get a better understanding of spiritual concepts specifying demarcated moral injunctions. I looked through the recipe chapter cursorily from pages 66 to 151.
This book includes a glossary and a section for Krishna Consciousness centers internationally.
I haven't tried the recipes, but according to readers, the recipes are great.
Information in this book helped reinforce my understanding of vegetarianism and thus not only referred inhumane slaughter of animals, but also health and spiritual benefits.
Cogent arguments to become vegetarian although the “goodness” of milk and dairy products that is emphasized is dubious. The best heart healthy diet is vegan as stated by US surgeon general years ago - unpopular to hear but based on scientific evidence.
I didn’t realize the polenta cakes w/ tomatoe concasse I got from another recipe set is actually from this book. Cannot wait to try out more of the more than 50+ recipes in this book.
I have eaten prasadam at Hare Krishna temples as part of Sunday worship and it is truly divine! Even got to help out in kitchen once ... another treat.
I am a fan of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. I kinda want to join their religion, but I am kinda stuck with this Judaism biz... in this life! Maybe next time, guys. Who am I kidding? MOS DEF next time, guys.
Suddenly(!) found a copy of this book in Lake Arrowhead, California at the little Rotary Club library by the Post Office when a friend of mine was told (because of a heart attack at age 73) that he had to become a vegetarian. I remembered that I had a copy from when I was in California years ago, and Voila, found my old copy from 1984, when I went to the retreat in Santa Monica. (Is it still there? Does anyone know?)
A little book packed full of a good intro to vegetarianism, without as much 'preaching' as the original. Meaningful quotes from da Vinci, Franklin, Tolstoy & Shaw, instead of just photos. Nice, clear color photos, instead of those that were falling out of my book! This new edition has also cleaned up many of the pages I had to wade thru during my first reading, updated some of the recipes, and added title(?) pages to differentiate the different meals, etc. However instead of two Italian meals, or two Chinese meals, for instance, there is only one; the paragraph on celebrities who endorse vegetarianism was eliminated, many of the hand-drawn how-to sketches are eliminated, and various other changes. 😒 Also, no index in either book!
Try the mung beans, rice & vegetables, the spinach risotto and the lasagna.
This book is well worth finding on the Internet, any edition, when you can get thru the first six chapters.
Stuffed Eggplant
2 eggplants (cut in half, lengthwise) 1 small can of tomato puree (8 oz) 1 cup bread crumbs 2 zucchini 1 pound mozzarella cheese (grated) 1 1/2 cups of oil or ghee 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon Hing 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon basil leaves garnish of oregano flakes, parsley flakes
Heat 1 cup oil, or ghee. Place eggplant into skillet and cook on low heat, turning, for 10-15 minutes. Set aside. In one-quart saucepan using 1/2 oil or ghee, heat black pepper, Hing, lemon juice. Add tomato puree, 1/2 cup water, 1 teaspoon salt and basil. Cook for 1/2 hour. Fry cubed zucchini, turning, and add bread crumbs. Return eggplant to skillet, stuff with ingredients and grated cheese. Heat slowly, partially covered, until cheese is melted. Garnish with oregano & parsley. Good with re-heated wheat rice.
Este fue un libro que influyó muchísimo en mi decisión de hacerme vegetariana. Yo sabía que algún día cambiaría mi forma de alimentarme, y este libro llegó en el momento oportuno y supuso el empujoncito final que me faltaba.
El libro aporta su punto de vista acerca de la ética de la alimentación. También aparecen recetas vegetarianas interesantes.
No comparto 100% lo expuesto en cuanto al estilo de alimentación, puesto que se trata de dieta vegetariana, no vegana (la cual yo considero más éticamente correcta). Además, no deja de ser un libro que pertenece a la doctrina Krishnaísta y aporta sus creencias, que pueden ser compartidas por el resto de personas o no: ahí ya entran en juego los juicios e ideas de cada uno.
De todas maneras, es un libro al que merece la pena echar un vistazo al menos.
Important book in my life, as it instantly made me vegetarian in 1987. Very short, but it's a great introduction to the 'why' for not eating meat. The fact that it was written in 1983 is amazing, since it's data has held up very nice over time - if not strengthened by the current science. It's from the Hare Krishna folks - but I don't recall it trying to convert. Although the recipes look good enough - if you're shopping for a religion, they're probably better than most. At least you'll eat well, and good food is good for the soul - or something like that.
You don't have to subscribe to the dogma to profit from the delicious recipes in this tiny tome, not to mention the economic, philosophical and nutritional information that supports vegetarianism. (By and large, however, Hare Krishnas are rather a nice collective with a sense of environmental, cultural and spiritual responsibility that is sadly lacking in our system. If you're sold by the dogma, too, there are worse fates. Like becoming a stockbroker.)
Being a Hindu, I always have a delima of converting to a vegetarian diet. Even though I appreciate the health aspect of a vegetarian diet, I stil feel Keto diet has better health benefits. For me the consideration to turn vegetarian can only be ethical. I do believe in Karma, and totally agree killing animal is sinful. May be one day, I will turn 💯 % vegetarian, and this book will play a role in it. To my next, spiritual journey!
Higher Taste provides instructions on how to make the internationally legendary Krishna-Prashadam by offering food to Lord Krishna.
The Higher Taste also gives a good ideas in the recipes sections of the wide variety of nutritious and delicious meals available without meat fish or eggs (or garlic, onions, chocolate or mushrooms.. )
Very decent introduction of why it's good to be vegetarian, fromall possible perspectives... after that some good various recipes. But what's missing is actually some whole diet guidance. But in the end, you should know what to expect, regarding both volume and authors.
I like how it gives a lot of reasons why we all should be vegetarians. I'm glad that this book made many people stop eating meat, however, all the explanation about religion was unbearable for me.
Very good book. About half of it is about the meat industry, what vegetarian diets have to do with spirituality, and how to offer food to Krishna. The actual recipes are good and easy to follow.
Socrates, Pythagoras, Plutarch, Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, Leonardo Da Vinci, Francis of Assisi, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, P.B. Shelley, Leo Tolstoy, Richard Wagner, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw, Alice Walker -- just a few of the famous historical figures who practiced vegetarianism. So I think I'm in good company. Come and join us.
You are what you consume, and what and how you consume determines what's left for others and future generations, and how much damage you cause. If you want to change the world, change your lifestyle. Revolutions start with personal choices. If you saw how your meat was prepared, chances are you wouldn't touch it.
In addition to providing a curated selection of delicious vegetarian dishes from a variety of cuisines around the world, contained within is: - a roundup of scientific research highlighting the inefficient and wasteful industrial slaughter that underlies modern eating habits - the politics and industrialization of the food industry that has led to unsafe food harming the health and well-being of millions of consumers (hint: public health, socio-economic equity, climate change, water shortages, global conflicts caused by resource competition can find many of their solutions in moving away from meat consumption) - a brief history of vegetarian thought, from Ancient Greece and Rome to the present - a summary of the benefits of a vegetarian diet - an explanation of the philosophy underlying the spiritual vegetarian diet lifestyle described by The Higher Taste, and - a brief history of the Krishna Consciousness movement as a movement promoting ecologically sustainable vegetarianism, a "spiritual vegetarian" lifestyle, and "sacred eating" as a form of devotional yoga (bhakti yoga).
A great starting point for those looking to learn more about the economic, ecological and ethical virtues of embracing and practicing a vegetarian/vegan/ethical consumption lifestyle, from both a scientific and spiritual perspective.
"If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty." - Sir Paul McCartney
"Thousands of people who say they 'love' animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living and who endured the awful suffering and terror of the abattoirs." - Dr. Jane Goodall
"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. We feel better about ourselves and better about the animals knowing that we are not contributing to their pain." - Linda McCartney
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." - Albert Einstein
"For those looking to improve the quality of their lives, how a meal is prepared is just as important as the ingredients that go into it. When performed in proper consciousness, cooking can be as satisfying and conducive to good health as any other form of meditation...Followers of the Bhagavad-gita know that preparing and then offering pure, natural food to the Supreme creates a feeling of sublime pleasure in the heart. Cooking becomes yoga. That's what we mean by a "higher taste."" - p.x