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How and why to offer the food to God?

This is a subject of fundamental importance for whole

mankind.To offer the food means to thanks for it, to recognize theenergy source from everything.The first thing to be understood is that Mother Nature(Durga mata) maintain us, and She possess the mostwonderful amount of mechanism to control and direct thewhole universe. As we are Her children, She granted to

the spiritual soul a material body for a limited time. Bodyand soul remain together as long as there are water,food and the due conditions. But, is a fact that ourattitude is influenced by what we eat, what we hear andwatch, etc.Even if our body is in 90% constituted by water, eachcell is enough sophisticated and its atomic particles holdthe information from our constitution.The main three colors produce the multicolor scale andthe three moods of Mother Nature (goodness, passion,inertia) originate the variety of characters; as yellowrelate to goodness, red to passion and blue to inertia, inthe same way, when oneself offer the food pronouncingthe respective mantras and thanking to the Lord that Hisenergy maintain us, then is created a beautiful

atmosphere that nourish and heal our existence.The Japan professor Maseru Emoto made photographyof crystals of water after those had been enclosed withwords like love, goodness, and forgiveness; indeed otherwaters was surrounded with words like hate, terror andcruelty. The pictures of those iced crystals weresurprising. The crystals from rude words looked like

monsters, but those of positive words were like preciousdiamonds.

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Our attitude and sound created, charge information,which penetrate each atom of us and later reflect in ourbehavior.

To offer the food and thanks for it is a millenary traditionin the daily routine of yogis and goodness mindedpeople. This practice keeps high loving consciousness inthe kitchen and allows the family to enjoy happymoments when they get together to eat sacred food;which is free from negative reactions of karma.Transcendental food liberates us from the influences of

materialism and grant happiness and good vibrations athome.Products from passion and ignorance like meat, fish,eggs; alcoholic beverages, etc shall not be offered toGod.

The process of offering is very simple, without any cost,but works only when is done with loving heart.

The Altar.Choose a quite and clean place of your home and putthere an altar. According Bhakti-yoga, the altar isarranged with a sculture (murti) or picture of the deity ofthe heart, istha dev; and one level down is placed thepicture of Guru ji, the spiritual master. If you have no

spiritual master then you can keep a picture of SrilaPrabhupad ji, who has been empowered by Shri KrishnaHimself to spread the teachings of Bhakti-yoga in Indiaand worldwide. Flowers and incense shall accompanythe offering.

The kitchen.

Everything shall be on time, clean and preferablyprepared following the recipes. It shall be avoided to

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taste the food before offering, but some bhaktas do thatjust to make sure that what ever they cooked haveenough salt etc. They serve a little of each foodstuff to

be tried outside the kitchen by own selves or to requestsomebody else to do so; after hands and mouth hasbeen rinsed, then an especial and nice plate is to servedfor the Supreme Lord. Add to each dish variety a sacredTulsi leaf and take the plate to the altar. Close thecurtain, and call the Lord with the bell by repeating threetimes following Maha-mantra:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare HareO my dear Lord, allow me to be an instrument of YourLovePlease my Lord, accept this offering of food that Icooked for you by Your Divine Grace.

Those who are initiated by the spiritual master, theyrepeat besides Maha-mantra, other mantras receivedfrom him in order to complete their offering. Example:

Om, ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakayaChaksur unmilitam yena tasmai shri gurave namahaI born in darkness of ignorance but my spiritual master

opened my eyes with the light of knowledge. I offer himmy respects.

Namo maha vadanyaya, Krishna prema pradayate,Krishnaya Krishna-chatanya, namne gaura tvise namahaI offer my prostrated respects to the Supreme Lord ShriKrishna Chaitanya, Who is the most generous Avatar,

even more then Shri Krishna Himself, because He is

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giving freely pure love for Shri Krishna, which never hasbeen granted by nobody else.

namo brahmanya devaya, go brahmana hitaya chajagat hitaya krishnaya govindaya namo namahaI offer my respectful salute to You, my Lord. You are theprotector of the cows and the well wisher of theBrahmins and the whole mankind as well.

Offering of food means offering our consciousness. After

pronouncing the mantras then we left the Lord aloneeating for 10 or 15 minutes, in which one can meditate orsing a song (bhajan) for the Lord. Then clap the hands 3times and open the curtain, retire the food and transfer itback into the potsnow everything what you cookedbecame maha-prasadam. Happy and thankful for thedivine glance the Lord gave to the food then, you mayrinse His plate.

The ancient custom in the Vedic Culture at the time ofeating is to call loudly, outside the home and to requestsomebody who is hungry to accept invitation to eat.Once the prasadam is served then following prayercomposed originally in Bengali by Bhaktivinoda Thakuris recommended:

The body is constituted by ignorance and the sensesthrow us in the ocean of nescience, from all the tongueis the most dangerous, obstinate and difficult to conquer.But most merciful Shri Krishna captivates our tonguewith His delicious prasadam. O brothers, lets taste thisnectarous food indeed glorifying Shri Shri Radha

Krishna, and with much love lets exclaim: JayChaitanya, jay Nitai!

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sarira avidya jal, jodendriya tahe kal,jihve pehle visaya sagore, tara madhye jihva ati,lobha moi sudurmati, take jeta kathina samsare,

Krishna baro doyamoi, koribare jihva joi,Sa prasad anna dilo bhai, sei annamrita pao,Radha-Krishna guna gao ,preme dako Chaitanya Nitai

With this daily practice you will experience wonderfulchanges in your life; your friends and family members

will get benefited. This is self-realization through habitsof day-by-day routine, like eating.To distribute sacred merciful food is a generous benefit,which makes fortunate and assure internal advance tothose who give and receive as well.It is well known that the reason why there is no peace inpeoples heart is due wasting of food, consume of junkfood and due to intake of meat along with its inherentviolence inflicted to killed animals.May the mercy of God in the form of sacred Prasadamaccompany us for the rest of our life.

Pictures for your altar, you may get at the nearest templeor download it from the Web: www.sabiduriavedica.org

Everything what you do, all what you eat, all what youoffer and give, and all austerities you undergo, you shalldo everything as an offering to Me. Bhagavad-Gita 9,27

If some body offer Me with love and devotion one leaf,one flower, one fruit or some water, I will accept it.Bhagavad-Gita 9,26

http://www.sabiduriavedica.org/http://www.sabiduriavedica.org/