Offering food to Lord Krishna

-
Offering food to Lord Krishna

Why we have to offer food to the Lord?             
                       
Unlike us lord doesn't need to eat rather he simply urge to the love with food which we offers to him. Preparing and offering food to the lord exhibits our love, devotion and gratitude towards him.

What type of food should be offered to the Lord?
Before this let us understand types of food, as per Ayurveda shastras food are categorized into three types Satvik, Rajsik and Tamasik according to their properties.

  • Satvik: The food which are obtained from top of the plants or trees such as leaves, fruits and flowers are considered to be satvik in nature such food provides calmness, purity, intelligence, health, strength and promotes longevity. In other food which are fresh, seasonal and locally grown are called as satvik food. Example: Vegetarian food without onion and garlic. milk and its product, cereals (non-refined), fruits, juices.
  • Rajsik: The food which composed of hot, spicy and salty along with pungent taste are refer to as rajsik food such food promotes negativity, restlessness, passion, rise in blood pressure, also creates sensuality, sexuality, jealousy, anger, delusion, fantasies, egotism, irreligious feelings etc. Example: refined cereals, hot and spicy food, fried, junk food, meat (non-vegetarian food).
  • Tamasik: The food which grows under the ground such food are considered to be tamsik in nature. Consumption of such food promotes dullness, ignorance since it takes time to digest, along with insecurity, self- centered. Example:Meat (non-vegetarian food), Tea, coffee, caffeinated beverages, alcohol, tobacco, stale food. 
Thus we should always offer satvik food to the lord which tends to be fresh. 

How to offer food to the Lord?
The Tulsi leaf (in pairs) is always used while offering food to lord, since tulsi is beloved devotee of lord in absence of tulsi leaf lord does not accepts the offering. According to Padmapuran it is mentioned that "Offering flowers made of gold, stones and pearls do not have even one sixteenth of the importance of Tulsi". Scientifically tulsi leaf while offering naivedya absorbs subtle frequencies emitted from food and also emits Satvik and Krushnatattva frequencies. Which eventually food (naivedya) becomes purified.

Prayers for Offering food to Lord Krishna

Srila Prabhupada Pranati


nama om vishnu-padaya

 krishna-preshthaya bhu-

tale

srimate bhaktivedanta-

svamin iti namine

Meaning: I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarinen

Meaning: Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritukindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.

                                    Sri Gauranga Pranama


namo maha-vadanyaya krishna-prema-pradaya te
krishnaya krishna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvishe namah

Meaning: O most munificent incarnation! You are Krishna Himself appearing as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimati Radharani, and you are widely distributing pure love of Krishna. We offer our respectful obeisance unto you. 

 

               namo brahmanya devaya go-bhrahmana-hitaya ca

           jagad-dhitaya krishnaya govindaya namo namah

Meaning: My lord you are the well-wisher of the cows and the brahmanas and you are the well-wisher of the entire human society and world.

 

                                       Panca-tattva Maha-mantra



(jaya) sri-krishna-caitanya prabhu nityananda
sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda

Meaning: “I bow down to lord Krishna, who appears as a supreme devotee lord Chaitanya), as his personal expansion (shri Nityananda), his acharya (shri Advaita), his  devotee (shri Srivasa) and his energy (Shri Gadadhara) and who is the source of strength for the devotees”

Hare Krishna Maha-mantra



HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

 

Meaning: “Hare” is an address to Gods energy known as Radha and “Krishna” is name of God meaning ‘He who is attractive to everyone’. “Rama” means “one who gives pleasure and enjoy life.” When the Maha-mantra chanted it is a petition to God: “O Krishna, O energy of Krishna, please engage me in your service.


Steps to offer food to the lord

Step 1: After Offering prayers leave the plate (Krishna's dinnerware)  with food in front of deity for few minutes similarly as you would if a loved one was eating.

Step 2: Remove the plate, transfer the food to a serving plate. Now the food is consider to be as Prasadam ( mercy of Lord)  

What is Significance of Prasadam?

When we eat prasadam we consider the spiritual value of the food since Lord Krishna has accepted it and is identical to him.Thus prasadam makes us purified.


Location: India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nature of Pure Devotee

-
Image
Arjuna refused to fight the war out of compassion for his friends and relatives In the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita we saw how upon Arjun's request krsna placed the chariot in between two phalanxes of soldiers. Senayor ubhayor madhye ratham sthapaya me acyuta (BG 1.21) Krsna has agreed to take an inferior position as Arjuna's charioteer. So this is very nice position for devotional service. Non devotees aspire to merge into the existence of the supreme or to become one with krsna. But by devotionl service a devotee can become greater than krsna even up to the stage of ordering krsna, just as Arjuna, that is power of Pure devotional service. Pure devotional service is rendered without any material motivation, So here we see that Arjuna has identified himself with the body, considering himself to be belonging to the kuru family with all his relatives, brothers, nephews, his grandfather ad others. therefore he refused to fight. Identifying our Disease In the Shastra it is sa...
Read more

Vaishnav Tilak

-
Image
Vaishnav Tilak      1.  What is Vaishnav Tilak? Krishna devotees wear the urdhva pundra made up of Gopi Chandan as tilak. The tilak symbolize lotus feet of lord Krishna and his beloved devotee Tulsi leaf. Tilak indicates   that the  lord resides in the heart and identifies once body as a temple.  Srila Prabupada emphasized that tilak was part of essential dress of a devotee. Srila prabhupada has given the example of a policeman, not only policeman is identified by his dress but also remind that his behavior should honor his position. Similarly by seeing someone wearing tilak he is identified as devotee of lord Krishna i.e "There is a Hare Krishna" As per SB 4.12.28 Purport " In kali-yuga one can hardly acquire gold or Jeweled ornaments, but the twelve tilak marks on the body are sufficient as auspicious decorations to purify the body."                             ...
Read more

Pranaam Mantras ISKCON (श्री वैष्णव प्रणाम मंत्र)

-
Pranaam Mantras ISKCON Sri Guru Pranama om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya cakshur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah   Meaning:  "I offer my respectful obeisance unto my spiritual master, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by   the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge." Sri Rupa Pranama sri-caitanya-mano-’bhishtam sthapitam yena bhu-tale svayam rupah kada mahyam dadati sva-padantikam Meaning:  "When will Srila Rupa Gosvami Prabhupada, who has established within this material world the mission to   fulfill the desire of Lord Caitanya, give me shelter under his lotus feet?" Mangalacarana vande ‘ham sri-guroh sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri-gurun vaishnavams ca   sri rupam sagrajatam saha-gana-raghunathanvitam tam sa jivam sadvaitam savadhutam parijana-sahitam krishna-caitanya-devam sri-radha-krishna-padan saha-gana-lalita- sri-visakhanvitams  ca Meaning:  "I offer my respectful obeisance unto the lotus feet of my s...
Read more