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When Does Food Become Prasadam?

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By Shivarama Swami January/February 2007 With proper guidance, anyone can turn ordinary food into a spiritual substance. The phenomenon of something changing from material to spiritual is an extraordinary one, but it is something we as devotees are involved in dailyoften several times a day. It happens when prasadam (unoffered food) becoming prasadam, or food sanctified by the Lord. When I was a new devotee in Montreal, we arranged a program that was to be given on campus at McGill University. The leaflet advertising the program read, See matter transformed into spirit before your very eyes. That title certainly drew interest from a lot of people. During the program, the temple president was giving the presentation, and he was leading up to this point. Finally he said, OK, now its going to happen. You are going to see spirit manifest before your very eyes. The students were sitting on the edge of their seats. The plate of unoffered food, which was the feast for that day, was brought in and placed in front of a picture of Panca-tattva (Lord Chaitanya and His four main associates). A devotee then bowed down, rang the bell, and uttered some mantras. Finally he stood and declared, Here it is! We brought in ordinary food, and now its transformed into spiritual substance. And before anyone could challenge, he said, The proof will be that you eat it now and see the effect that it has. As Krishna says, pratyakshavagamam dharmyam: The principle of religion is understood by direct experience. (Bhagavad-gita 9.2), or in this case, the proof is certainly in the tasting. Those who have tasted Krishnas prasadam know that it has extraordinary potency, and eating it is a very different experience from eating food that isnt offered to the Lord with love and devotion.

So when does prasadam become prasadam? When it is offered, certainly. But for an offering to be successful, it must be accepted. When Krishna accepts what we offer to Him, it becomes prasadam. The word prasadam means mercy, and in the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna says, prasade sarva-duhkhanam hanir asyopajayate: Receiving the mercy of the Lord destroys all misery. Therefore, when we eat (or, as we say, honor) prasadam, we feel elated. prasadam destroys the results of our past sinful activities. Rupa Goswami says it makes us feel very auspicious. And what is it that is really being accepted? Is it the foods itself? Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (9.26), patram pushpam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayacchati tad aham bhakty-upahritam ashnami prayatatmanah If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it. He says, I accept the bhakti. You may offer a leaf, a flower, fruit, milk, or ghee-cooked preparations, but the devotion is what carries those preparations to Krishna, and thats what makes Him inclined to accept it. Sri Ishopanishad (Mantra 5) tells us, tad dure tad v antike: although Krishna is very far away, He is also very close. So wherever we are when we offer something to Krishna, devotion brings Him right to us. We should recognize, however, that not all offerings are on the same level; they depend on the nature of the devotee. Although there are many ways to categorize devotees, in this case we may consider three types: motivated, pure, and love-saturated devotees. Consequently, their offerings will fall into one of these three categories. The Motivated Offering A motivated offering is when something is offered to Krishna with the idea that some material benefit will come in return, such as liberation from material suffering: If I give this to Krishna, Ill be prosperous, Ill be healthy, my children will find suitable spouses, and so on. Or someone might desire to be free from suffering, or to recover from an illnessthis is offering with motivation. But even that motivated offering can be done in two ways. If it is done through the guru-parampara, the succession of gurus, then Krishna will accept it, because pure devotees are very merciful, and to elevate motivated devotees they beseech Krishna to accept their meager offerings. In other words, it is the purity of the devotees in the guruparampara that transforms the impure offering into a pure offering. If a motivated person just makes an offering whimsically, however, not through a guru-parampara, then the offering doesnt become prasadam but remains prasadam. Yet still such offerings have value in the sense that the person is thinking, At least I am offering this to Krishna. Of course, whatever way people think of Krishna is beneficial. Akama, sarva-kama, moksha-kama: without material desires, full of material desires, or desiring liberation. In each case they become gradually purified. But unless Krishna exercises some extraordinary mercy, He doesnt accept food offered with ulterior motives. Yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto pi: Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. (Gurvashtaka 8) Krishna wont accept something unless it comes through the guru-parampara.

An interesting question often arises regarding congregation members or new devotees who are not initiated but who are making offerings: Are the offerings prasadam or prasadam? In this case we should consider the potency of the disciplic succession. The disciplic succession is not restricted to initiated devotees. If someone receives an instruction from an authorized Vaishnava to offer food, then Krishna will accept their offering. Krishna wont reject their sincere approach, because such persons are, in effect, accepting the guru-parampara even though they have not yet gone through the process of diksha. The Pure Offering The second type of offering is the pure offering, when a devotee offers something to Krishna to please Him. A devotee has no selfish motives; he only wants please the Lord. Therefore at home he offers food to a picture, to a deity, to a shalagrama-shila. And in the temple, pure-hearted pujaris try to please GauraNitai and Radha-Krishna. But even in this category there are two types of offerings: regulated and spontaneous. Regulated offerings are done out of duty, following all the rules and regulations. The other also involves the devotee doing everything just right, but out of a spontaneous attachment to the Lord. Such a devotee has a certain degree of affection, and the dominant thought is not one of obligation"I will do this because Ive been instructed to by guru and shastra. Yet by doing things according to guru and shastra, devotees awaken their natural attraction to Krishna and perform spontaneous acts of devotion out of affection. This affection is a little different from mature love, spiritual love, but it is genuine. Still, both these pure offerings have to be made through the guru-parampara. The prasadam is also different in this category. When you offer something to Krishna out of duty, He accepts it out of duty. He feels duty-bound. In the Bhagavad-gita (3.24) Krishna says, If I didnt follow the rules and regulations, then other people would be misled. Krishna is acting out of duty. But Krishna considers that of all the devotees who are surrendered to Him, the one who is offering things to Him with affection is most dear to Him. Consequently, Krishna reciprocates in kind: He responds with loving affection toward that devotee. Naturally the question arises, Are there different kinds of prasadam? And the answer, then, is yes. Krishna says, ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamyaham: As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. (Bg. 4.11) According to the quality and quantity of devotion with which one makes an offering to Krishna, that offering proportionately becomes prasadam. It is interesting to note that a devotees ability to taste prasadam will also be in proportion to his or her ability to offer prasadam. In other words, devotees will taste the spiritual nature of prasadam in the same degree they are manifesting devotion in the offering. The Offering in Pure Love The third kind of offering is that which is done with pure love. When devotees come to the stage of loving devotion, Krishna directly accepts offerings from their hands, and He reciprocates with them in kind. Loving devotion is that which is exhibited by Krishnas eternal associates in the spiritual world, where He is directly engaged in tasting all the types of love His devotees offer. So what is it thats different, and how is it that prasadam becomes spiritual? The food looks the same before and after the offering, but what actually happens is that Krishna reciprocates with the devotion of the devotee by manifesting His svarupa-shakti, or His daivi-prakriti, His internal spiritual potency, to the

degree that the devotee allows. By allows I mean to the degree the devotee wants, or to the degree that he manifests a quality and quantity of devotional service. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in Jagannatha Puri and tasted Jagannatha prasadam, He became overwhelmed by the ecstatic taste of the prasadam. He glorified the prasadam and could directly taste the saliva of Krishnas lotus lips mixed in with the food. He went on to glorify the effect of the touch of Krishnas lips. This is what happens when someone in loving devotion tastes food that has been offered to the Lord. And in this case, no doubt, Chaitanya Mahaprabhus ability to taste the potency of the prasadam exceeds that of the brahmanas who offered it to Lord Jagannatha. But, still, that prasadam is Krishnas internal potency. It is non-different from Krishna, and it is dynamic. A loving devotee may taste more of the spiritual potency present in prasadam than was originally manifest to the pujari who offered it. We may also consider the examples of Prahlada Maharaja and Mirabai: Both were given poison to drink, but because of their great loving devotion, the poison was transformed into nectar and had no effect. Why is that? Because both poison and nutritious food are part of the relativity of this material world. But when we offer something with love to Krishna, then Krishnas sac-cid-ananda potency manifests in that food. In this way, poison becomes as much prasadam as a pakora does. Offering Our Lives We shouldnt think, however, that an offering is simply the prasadam or food we offer to Krishna. Devotees make their entire life an offering: yat karoshi yad ashnasi yaj juhoshi dadasi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kurushva mad-arpanam Krishna is saying, Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you performdo that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to Me. (Bg. 9.27) Ultimately every breath a devotee takes is an offering: when devotees sleep because they need to maintain their bodies for Krishnas service, then that sleep becomes an offering to the Lord; their eating to maintain their bodies so they can remain healthy to serve Krishna is an offering to the Lord; when they receive anythingfood, soap, moneyall of these things are offered to Krishna. In New Vraja Dhama (the devotee farm community in Hungary) anything the devotees acquire or receive, they first offer to RadhaSyamasundara, the presiding deities, on a tray that sits before the altar. In this way the practice of offering everything to Krishna becomes natural. We should learn how to offer everything. We rise early in the morning, and the first thing we do is offer prayers to the Lord. We chant Hare Krishna not as entertainment but as an offering to glorify Krishna. And when someone lives like that, then in one sense the act of making the offering becomes unnecessary (although devotees do it to set the example) because such devotees are always absorbed in doing everything for Krishna. Therefore, yo me bhaktya prayacchatithe bhakti is already there, and Krishna is very eager to receive it. In fact, Krishna follows behind devotees to accept their loving devotion every

moment of the day, in every movement of their bodies, and in every thought they manifest in relation to their devotional service to Him. Ultimately this is what we aspire for, and this is what loving devotees do: they live for Krishna, and thus everything they do becomes Krishna consciousit becomes prasadam. The cowherd boys simply sit down with Krishna and eat from their lunch packsthey dont make any offering to Krishna. When they offer something to Krishna, they take from their lunch packs and put it right in Krishnas mouth. Or they may even bite off half a sweetball and then say, Oh, Krishna, just see how wonderful this sweetball tastes! and put the rest in Krishnas mouth. Yo me bhaktya prayacchati: its just their love. The formality and technicality of offering is no longer relevant, because what Krishna really wants is the love and devotion. Thats all that actually interests Him. And whether Mother Yashoda offers her breast milk, the gopis offer their bodies, the cows offer their milk, the cowherd boys wrestle and jump on Krishnas shoulderseverything becomes prasadam because everything is an offering of love. Our business in Krishna consciousness, therefore, is to live in this world of prasadam and thereby become prasadam ourselves. This is what Krishna concludes in the Bhagavad-gita (4.24) when He says, brahmarpanam brahma havir brahmagnau brahmana hutam ...: A person who is fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities. If were thinking about offering everything to Krishna, if our physical acts are an offering to Krishna, if our words are an offering to Krishna, then ultimately we become an offering to Krishna. Then we become prasadam. And Krishna is always very eager to taste the wonderful mellows of our loving offerings to Him. Login or register to post comments 0100090000035906000000006c04000000006c04000026060f00ce08574d464301000000000001003 2910000000001000000ac08000000000000ac080000010000006c00000000000000000000000f0000 000f00000000000000000000008f0100008f01000020454d4600000100ac0800000f000000010000000 00000000000000000000000000500002003000040010000c800000000000000000000000000000000 e20400400d0300460000002c00000020000000454d462b014001001c000000100000000210c0db010 000006000000060000000460000004403000038030000454d462b224004000c000000000000001e40 09000c00000000000000244001000c000000000000003040020010000000040000000000803f21400 7000c00000000000000084000059c020000900200000210c0db010000000000000000000000000000 00000000000100000089504e470d0a1a0a0000000d49484452000000100000001008060000001ff3ff 610000023a4944415438cb9d53df4fd2511cbd40eb7fa9492a265f7ed34acd4c2a57a4b2562fcd395b0f b5b5f5620f3dd4e6d435c9e22503948a565bbf68ad362b9bf8a04dca36275f0805192e4d12a35102a77 baf4120ae5a773b0fdc9d73bee773f85c42e869acdbd751d5a00e497acb9292bebf80722a1bd5a1fa9a ba0ea6259623cd6da46b3b342e233483ff08ca95f6ca613137b713c1a4173543f4d2f91b2a871e4abb1 635b71b507b673f04bb0e824357c46126429341245b2fcb9385068cd8397a15fee539fcc8ac612d93c6 5c22869e0967b1014d22b3962789ac7b47de807dc93df30cec2c7e8bc3f371048f022f11492cf0bb634f ce141bf457ac1b543bb4a8baa9c6f9375738f175640206d71e94df507230c189a7e7a076184b0d48d7b 6e4f3f018a61645aca456114f25b0cb558b03f75bf12a3c0e6fd487d6c7a7a8d8503a42cec01bf3214ce7 64b8ee73a37240c0c8fc5be48e7f799697cafaa9b66bd64153cbaefdea40e9d4710227d11e76d271c66 31ff206ac0326bae0ed47201ee698fa1cc0169ba2b8c41c58dce39eb308c6235c7c7af8123760c254fa3 b6668a2f74bfecd0dd80e1c7d7812faa1dd500ca8781a96cc35ede1696cefeef2fba2110a0deadd8790c

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