Part Three: Cochabamba, Bolivia

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We drove to another studio and met Vicki Moyano, who hosted a show called Para Mejor Vivir (A Better Life). Our pre-recorded interview focused in on the spiritual aspects of cooking. Vicki was very open-minded, and as a vegetarian herself, urged me to speak in-depth. I explained in our pre-recorded interview how my style of cooking was actually called bhakti-yoga, the yoga of love.

Giving people spiritual life in the form of delicious pure vegetarian food cooked with love is what bhakti-yoga is all about. One of the main elements of bhakti-yoga, I explained, was the preparation of sacred foods, foods fit for God. For thousands of years, priests in temples throughout India had prepared divine vegetarian offerings for the Supreme Being, known by names such as Krishna and Rama. These offerings were saturated with love and devotion. Vicki seemed to appreciate the concept, and nodded thoughtfully.

I explained how the Sanskrit word yoga carried the meaning of "connection," specifically the connection between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. That connection had now been broken, and yoga was the means for re-establishing it. The connection between the soul and Supreme Soul was intimate and personal, and the techniques for re-establishing the connection were also intimate and personal. "If we love someone, we want to do things for them, and a very common thing that people do for people they love is to cook for them," I said.

Vicki smiled in agreement. She had been doing her homework. “What about offering your food to Krishna?” she asked. I told her that practitioners of bhakti-yoga prepare offerings for Krishna in this same spirit of love. This love is manifested at every stage of the cooking process - "from the careful selection and purchasing of the ingredients at the markets to the final offering of the sacred meal to the object of one's devotion." We spoke about a few other esoteric subjects before winding up the interview. Vicki promised the interview would go to air as part of her show later that week. I thanked her, and we were on our way.

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