Prasadam (1)

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Naivedya: Food Offered To The Lord

 

Ekanath Das, 1997

 

The glories of food and the glories of other items (especially

flowers), that have been offered to the Deity, will be discussed.

 

In ISKCON we talk a lot about prasadam and maha-prasadam, which we

simply call "Maha". If we were to search for key words in Sanskrit books,

like verse beginnings in the slokanukramanika (an alphabetical verse index

that is sometimes supplied with a Purana or other literature), we would

wrongly conclude that these books do not have much to say about prasadam.

There are however a great number of statements, especially in the

Brahma-vaivarta Purana, the Hari-bhakti-vilasa and other books, but we would

have to search for the words naivedyam, niveditam, nirmalyam, sesa, avasesa

etc.

 

It so happened that I began to search for these entries, after one

devotee had posted a message on COM, in which he asked whether anyone could

supply a sastric reference to the effect that a person who takes

Krsna-prasadam, would attain liberation after 700 births. What I found is as

follows:

 

In the Hari-bhakti-vilasa, just as there is a Nirmalya-mahatmya at

the end of the eighth vilasa, so there is at the end of the ninth vilasa a

section called Naivedya-mahatmyam, The Glories of Prasadam. There are some

fifteen verses, quoted from different sources, and even though there is

nothing about liberation after 700 births, still, the wonderful results of

taking prasadam, which are listed there, are sometimes exceeding simple

liberation after 700 births.

 

It is stated that the remnants of food offered to the Lord have the

potency of one million fire sacrifices; then there is a nice verse ending

with the statement:

 

 

yo 'snati nityam purato murareh

prapnoti yajnayuta-koti-punyam

 

"One who takes the food that was previously accepted by Murari,

attains the pious results of ten-thousand times ten-million fire yajnas."

 

 

After this verse, which is numbered as 130 in my Bengali edition,

verse 131 comes as a commentary of the above, as it were:

 

sadbhir masopavasais tu

yat phalam parikirtitam

visnor naivedya-sese yat

phalam tad bhunjatam kalau

 

This verse explains that in the Kali-yuga, a person who eats the

remnants of food offered to Lord Visnu, gets the same pious credits as if he

has been observing a fast for six months.

 

In the Brahma-vaivarta Purana (4.37.27) it is stated that a person

who happens to eat the remnants of food offered to the Lord, in the

association of sadhus, gets the results of performing sixty thousand years

of austerities.

 

In general, most quotes compare the powers of taking the remnants of

food that has been offered to the Lord to the performance of a particular

number of certain yajnas.

 

Now somebody may argue that liberation is still better than any

number of yajnas, because yajnas take you to heaven only. Even though the

yajnas are specified in one verse as agnistoma and vajapeya, the meaning is

not limited to that. In verse 133 there is a quite interesting (and a little

funny) statement, that explains what one actually gets:

 

hrdi rupam mukhe nama

naivedyam udare hareh

padodakam ca nirmalyam

mastake yasya so 'cyutah

 

"Having the form of the Lord in one's heart, His name in one's

mouth, the remnants of His food in one's belly, the water that has washed

His feet on one's head and being decorated with garlands and flowers that

had been offered to the Lord, one becomes like Acyuta."

 

Sanatana Gosvami comments on the words "sah acyutah": "Acyutah means

like Acyuta, because one attains the liberations beginning with sarupya."

 

Still, one may argue that liberation simply from taking prasadam is

not possible, because the above verse should mean that one must meet all the

requirements simultaneously, i.e.:

 

1. form in one's heart,

2. name in one's mouth,

3. food in one's belly,

4. water on one's head,

5. garlands, tulasi, flowers etc. all around