I’m a pretty decent amateur cook and whenever we visit the Sivananda Yoga Ashram in the Bahamas, I’m routinely asked to volunteer my skills in the kitchen as part of my Karma Yoga. In fact, upon arrival it’s fairly routine for one of the Swamis to excitedly catch me at check in with the question: “Will you be cooking moussaka this week?”.

A few years ago, my “team” of volunteers and I were cooking up a vegetarian storm for some 200 guests. It was sweltering outside and a good 10 degrees hotter in the kitchen. A young staff member came into the kitchen and saw us opening dozens of large cans of tomatoes for my sauce. She came over to me and said, “You know, what you are doing is very wasteful, just throwing the cans into the garbage like that with no concern for the space they take up. You should cut the lids off at both ends and then flatten the cans”. Wiping the sweat from my eyes and forehead with my sleeve, I gave her a steely look and from somewhere deep inside my Ego, I replied: “In my kitchen, if you have a good suggestion, it means you’ve just volunteered to do it…thanks”.

She stormed out in a huff and never came back. The moussaka and other dishes were superb…quite an accomplishment without meat, onions, or garlic (all verboten in the Yogic tradition).