"Strive to attain purity of heart. Let this be your foremost endeavour. With purity of heart, you can achieve anything. In order to attain purity of heart, you have to partake of sacred food. One who cooks food should have sacred feelings. In olden days, orthodox Brahmins used to insist on partaking of food prepared only by their wives. The reason being, housewives wished for the well-being of the entire family and prepared food. On the other hand, if you employ cooks, God knows with what feelings they prepare the food! The unsacred thoughts of the cook enter the food, which in turn poisons your mind. Annam Brahma (food is God). Hence, it should be prepared with sacred feelings. Mere physical cleanliness will not suffice, the mind also should be pure. You should see to it that the vegetables used for preparing food are procured in a righteous manner. For example, husband brings vegetables from the market. He might have misused his position of authority and brought them without making payment or the vendors themselves might have procured the vegetables by unfair means. When such vegetables are consumed, your mind gets polluted. You do not realise that the food you eat is responsible for the actions you perform. Unsacred food makes you do unsacred deeds."
- Divine Discourse 23 November 2002