Prasadam

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>From the old texts:

 

Internet: Dragan Juric <juricd (AT) EUnet (DOT) yu>

Accepting prasadam...

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Dear Sri Visnupada,

please accept my most humble obeisances at the dust of Your lotus feet.

All glories to You and to Srila Prabhupada.

 

There is a senior, very respectable brahmana in our temple. He is

Your disciple. Few times I offered him some prasadam, but he doesn't

want to accept anything cooked or offered by non-initiates.

 

Last time, I offered him a fruit yogurt. There is nothing cooked in it,

no grains or beans also. It's a plain mixture of yogurt, cut fruit and

sugar.

 

I do chant 16 rounds daily, do not eat meat, fish or eggs, do not

intoxicate, do not gamble and do not have sex, all this during several

years. Also, I do the service and read S.P.'s books.

All the prasadam I offered to You, because temple president allowed

me to do so.

Yet he, although he knows this, says that he rejects anything that I

may make or offer, merely because I don't have an initiation, and that

THIS IS YOUR ORDER.

 

Sri Visnupada, is this really Your order and should we all follow

that standard? And if so, why should we be so strict?

 

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Text COM:408600 (23 lines)

Harikesa Swami

Accepting prasadam...

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Non-cooked foods can be accepted from anyone at any time, if they are pure

(not animal product and so on.)

 

You sound like a good devotee, so even if you were to cook something and

offer

it properly it could be accepted by initiated devotees if you were to invite

them to your house. After all, we used to go to people's houses in India

with

Srila Prabhupada and accept their offerings. However, this is not the best

thing for initiated devotees. The best thing is to only accept foods cooked

in

the temple by initiated devotees and offered to the Deities. But if one is

travelling and preaching and does a program in someone's house then it is

natural to accept something from them if they are on the same standard as a

regular devotee, namely chanting and following the four regulative

principles.

 

I do remember from India getting extremely sick from eating outside and

Prabhupada confirmed that it came from eating and therefore I have warned

all

my disciples that it is not good to eat outside, even in India, although for

preaching we might make exceptions, but still there will be reactions.

People

like to feed sadhus because the sadhus come to their house and eat their

sins.

Prabhupada was merciful and didn't mind eating other's sins because he

wanted

to save them, but other devotees, who are not so powerful, will get sick by

such eating.

 

Hope this has clarified the situation.

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