Indians
make an offering of food to the Lord and later partake of it as prasaada -
a holy gift from the Lord. In our daily ritualistic worship (pooja) too we
offer naivedyam (food) to the Lord.
The
Lord is omnipotent and omniscient. Man is a part, while the Lord is the
totality. All that we do is by His strength and knowledge alone. Hence what we
receive in life as a result of our actions is really His alone. We acknowledge
this through the act of offering food to Him. This is exemplified by the Hindi
words "tera tujko arpan"– I offer what is Yours to You.
Thereafter it is akin to His gift to us, graced by His divine touch.
Knowing
this, our entire attitude to food and the act of eating changes. The food
offered will naturally be pure and the best. We share what we get with others
before consuming it. We do not demand, complain or criticise the quality of the
food we get. We eat it with cheerful acceptance (prasaada buddhi).
Before
we partake of our daily meals we first sprinkle water around the plate as an
act of purification. Five morsels of food are placed on the side of the plate
acknowledging the debt owed by us to the Divine forces (devta runa) for
their benign grace and protection, our ancestors (pitru runa) for giving
us their lineage and a family culture, the sages (rishi runa) as
our religion and culture have been "realised", aintained and handed
down to us by them, our fellow beings (manushya runa) who
constitute society without the support of which we could not live as we do and
other living beings (bhuta runa) for serving us selflessly.
Thereafter
the Lord, the life force, who is also within us as the five life-giving
physiological functions, is offered the food. This is done with the chant
praanaaya swaahaa,
apaanaaya swaahaa,
vyaanaaya
swaahaa,
udaanaaya swaahaa,
samaanaaya swaahaa,
brahmane swaahaa
After offering the food thus, it is
eaten as prasaada - blessed food.
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