To eat or not to eat

[Guest guest]

tiruvenkatam,

sadagopaniyengar wrote:

>

> To Eat or Not to Eat

 

 

******************

 

Dear Sri Sadagopan Iyengar,

 

A very informative piece indeed on

"bhagavath-prasAdam". Many thanks for the relevant

"pramAnam" quoted from various scriptural sources.

 

While reading your interesting posting, the following

thoughts randomly occured to me. I hope you will not

mind if I share them with you as well as the Group

members:

 

(1) The practice of offering food unto God and thereby

consecrating it before consumption is not something

unique to SriVaishnavas. It is a practice almost

universal in all major religions.

 

I have lived and worked in the Muslim world of the

Arab World for well over a decade now. Devout Muslims

will never eat food unless it is first offered unto

the ALmighty. I have witnessed my Muslim colleagues,

happening to be travelling with me on work out of

Kuwait to Europe or the Far East, wholly abjuring from

all meat-food (their staple diet) during the entire

trip simply because it is not "halaal" ie. meat that

has not been offfered as sacrament unto God before

being cooked as dish. (I am a vegetarian and my

Muslim colleague and I have often gone for days during

our tour of Taiwan and Shanghai without a proper meal:

he because he could not find "halaal" meat and I

because I could not find a 100% vegetarian

restaurant!... But that's another story!)

 

Similarly, good Christian families, gathered together

at a meal-table, never begin their meal without first

saying "Grace" -- a short prayer to the Almighty in

gratitude for the food served before them and

acknowledging that it is indeed His blessing.

 

Jews also are very particular about "kosher", again to

do with a sort of consecration of food before

consumption.

 

(2) In the Ramayana, there is the famous episode of

Sabari, the old mendicant lady who lived alone in the

forests of Dandakaranya waiting patiently for years

for Lord Rama to step over her humble doorsteps. The

story goes that Sabari used to daily prepare a simple

meal made of forest fruit, herb and shoots every day

and then wait to see if Rama came by. The story also

goes that Sabari used to nibble bits of the meal just

to make sure it was of good quality and fit for the

royal taste of the Prince of Ayodhya.

 

The Ramayana tells us that when Rama did eventually

arrive at old Sabari's cottage in the forest, he

gladly feasted upon the old lady's special meal. That

special "pre-tasted meal", from our narrow perspective

of what is "yecchil" and what is "shuddham", would

definitely qualify as rather "unclean food". The

question is: Was Sabari's meal really unclean? Was it

"ecchil"? And if so what did the Almighty, in his

avatara as Rama, see in it that delectated Him so

much?

 

I think the Sabari story affirms the fundamental

SriVaishnava belief that "bhAgavatha prasAda" --

left-over food from the plate of a true devotee of God

--- is surely charged with some sort of sacredness no

less than "bhagavath-prasAda" itself.

 

(3) "bhagavath-prasAdam" means not only Food

consecrated through offering to God. In the

SriVaishnava belief-system, everything that remains as

"left-over" after symbolically and sincerely offered

unto God is "bhagavath-prasAdam" and hence eminently

fit for human use and consumption. Even clothes,

ornaments and other personal effects that one wears or

otherwise uses should really have first been already

offered unto God. This belief is what is

unequivocally indicated in the 9th stanza of

Peria-AzhwAr's famous "Tiru-pallAndu":

 

uduththuk kaLaindha nin peedhaka aadai uduththuk*

kalaththathuNdu*

thoduththa thuzhaaymalar soodik kaLaindhana* soodum

iththoNdar_kaLOm*

viduththa thisaikkarumam thiruththith* thiruvONath

thiruvizhavil*

paduththa pain^n^aakaNaip paLLikoNdaanukkup* pallaaNdu

kooRuthumE. 9.

 

(4) Food ("annam") in itself is a "devata" (a lesser

god) in the Vedic pantheon. There is the famous "anna

sUktam" -- hymn in praise of Food -- which extols Food

as the source of all Energy. In the broadest and most

platonic of the Vedic sense of the term, Food is

itself a cosmic Principle ("tattva") representing not

only edibles fit for human consumption. "annam" is in

fact anything and everything that provides vitality or

life-energy ("prANa") to every being or thing in the

cosmos.

 

When we eat, we are actually, in a very special way,

in deep communion with God, the Supreme One who is the

seat of all "prANa", who is the fountainhead of all

Energy that enlivens and locomotes all Creation. Food

that has been symbolically offered to the ALmighty

before being consumed by us, stands therefore

"consecrated": it is charged with divine potentiality;

it stands transmuted at once into high-energy Food

("prANa").

 

Thanks and regards,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

So what is Hindu kOsher/halAl/Grace?

It is simply our ATTITUDE towards foor-

if we consume food as prasAdam we are cleared of all pApams,

this is what we can conclude from BG chapter 3, verse 13.

 

 

ya-jn^a-shi-SHTA-shi-nah sa-nto

mu-chya-nte sa-rva-ki-lbi-SHaih |

bhu-n^ja-te te tva-gham pA-pA

ye pa-cha-ntyA-tma-kA-ra-Nat ||III-13||

 

 

ya-jn^a-shi-SHTa (remnants of a yajn^a, food remaining after

performance of an yajn^a,

remannats of fire offering, food offered in worship)

a-shi-nah (eating, consume)

sa-ntah (the righteous, good, devotees, true)

mu-chya-nte (they are released, are liberated, are freed)

sa-rva (all kinds of)

ki-lbi-SHaih (from sins, from wrongs, from evils).

bhu-n^ja-te (eat, relish, enjoy)

te (they, those)

tu (indeed, but)

a-gham (sin, impurity, pain, suffering)

pA-pAh (the wicked, sinners, the evil ones, sinful ones)

ye (who)

pa-cha-nti (prepare food, they cook, they digest)

A-tma (own, self)

kA-ra-Nat (for the sake of)

 

The righteous people consume food remaining after being offered to a

ya-jn^a and are thus

released from all evils; but the wicked, who prepare food for their

own sake, indeed eat only sin.

 

dAsan

 

K.S. tAtAchAr

 

mksudarshan2002 (AT) (DOT) co.in

tiruvenkatam

Cc: oppiliappan;

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 4:44 AM

"To eat or not to eat"