In the hometown of the nation's largest church-owned university, Govinda's Restaurant sells a variety of vegetarian dishes, all flavored with a sprinkling of Krishna consciousness.
The food - whether it's basmati rice, curried vegetables, a Bheema veggie burger, dhal (split pea) soup or even grilled tofu - is all served to the restaurant's mostly LDS clientele pre-blessed, according to restaurant owner Peter Corbett, a Hare Krishna devotee of 18 years.Corbett uses his chosen name of Vatsala Das, which translates to "affectionate servant of God."
Govinda's, 260 N. University Ave., a small, health-oriented buffet tucked into downtown Provo, is the only strictly vegetarian restaurant in Utah. The restaurant's name, "for God," translates literally to "one who gives pleasure to the senses, or one who protects the cows."
"So it is very appropriate that it is a vegetarian restaurant," Vatsala says.
"We understand God to be the Supreme Proprietor and the Supreme Enjoyer. Everything is prepared with the idea that this is God's pleasure, and then it is offered to him after it is prepared."
The three-year-old restaurant in downtown Provo relies on word-of-mouth - the advertising budget is "zero," Vatsala says - to bring in as many as 75 customers per day.
"It's made a profit from the beginning," he says. "Our overhead is very low. My wife does almost everything."
Vatsala works full time as a cabinetmaker, while his wife, Deborah, who has taken the Krishna name of Shashi Das, tends the restaurant. She prepares the food, then places it before a picture of deity on a special plate or cup and offers a prayer.
"In your heart, you're asking God to accept this offering," Vatsala says. "What He's interested in - He doesn't need to eat - is your love and devotion in preparing the food and offering it."
Vatsala says Krishna devotees strictly avoid eating in the kitchen - including tastes off the stirring spoon - because they believe that would symbolically contaminate the food.
"The food we serve at the restaurant is sanctified food. So that means anyone who eats that food is spiritually benefited. It's like the sacrament."
The Hare Krishna faith forbids eating meat, fish or eggs and also outlaws intoxicants such as cigarettes, tea or coffee. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also adhere to a strict dietary code, called the Word of Wisdom, which restricts consumption of meat, encourages consumption of grains and vegetables and outlaws tobacco and alcohol.
Many customers are referred to the restaurant because of its healthful and inexpensive buffet selection. It is a favorite choice of dieters on the Weight Watchers program.
"We're showing that there is an unlimited variety of tastes that one can experience as a vegetarian."
Vatsala says Govinda's is a family business but operates in connection with the Hare Krishna radio station in Spanish Fork, which is owned by his friend Chris Warden, or Charu Das. Although Utah County is home to only about 12 members of the Hare Krishna faith and Salt Lake County has only about a dozen more, Vatsala says devotees have formed a community around the station and his own privately owned restaurant.
Charu, who owns a vegetarian catering business in Los Angeles, purchased KHQN, 1480 AM, near the world headquarters of the LDS Church because the price was right. Vatsala and his family originally came to Utah in 1986 to help Charu build a Krishna temple near the station and liked the small-town, wholesome environment enough to stay.
"The whole atmosphere is a little more akin to what we're used to, in living in a devotional environment," he says.
Another similarity between the Eastern religious sect and the American denomination, Vatsala says, is that both want to spread the word. "People around here are also doing missionary work. They have a little more appreciation for that kind of thing."
While the all-Krishna-programmed radio station is a novelty in the world, the movement supports a baker's dozen of vegetarian restaurants. Vatsala and his wife opened the sect's first in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1974.
They learned the trade by cooking at other Krishna temples, which function as community gathering places for devotees and, in addition, serve a regular Sunday feast. Vatsala says he once cooked for 20,000 people at a religious festival in San Francisco.
As well as serving interesting vegetable-based dishes, Govinda's dishes up Krishna consciousness along with its non-processed, fresh foods. "We don't press anything," Vatsala says. "We're not proselytizing at the restaurant, but if people want to know anything, then we're there. We have books they can read."
While the faith is most familiar for its proselytizing at airports, Vatsala says Hare Krishnas aren't looking to take over Utah County. Instead, they hope the area will develop a greater degree of "God consciousness."
"It's actually within your heart. We're not a sectarian group. The principle is everyone is a servant of God. That's regardless whether you're a man or woman, black, white, tall or thin."