Offering food to the Lord

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Why do we offer food to the Lord before eating it?

 

In western tradition food is partaken after a thanks giving prayer -

grace. Indians make an offering of it to the Lord and later partake

of it as prasad - a holy gift from the Lord. in temples and in many

homes, the cooked food is first offered to the Lord each day. The

offered food is mixed with the rest of the food and then served as

prasad. In our daily ritualistic worship (pooja) too we offer

naivedyam (food to the Lord)

 

This is done because : 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 from the aarti " Jai Jagdesh Hare " - 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 do not waste

or reject it. We eat it with cheerful acceptance (prasad buddhi).

When we become established in this attitude, this goes beyond the pre-

view of food and pervades our entire life. We are then able to

cheerfully accept all we get in life as his prasad.

 

Before we partake 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 table 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 the family

culture.

The sages (rishi runa) as our religion and culture have

been " realised " maintained 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.

 

There after the Lord, the life force, who is also within us as the

five life - giving physiological functions, is offered the food. The

five life-giving functions are praanaaya (respiratory), apaanaaya

(excretory), vyaanaaya (circulatory), udaanaaya (reversal) and

samaanaaya (digestive). After offering the food thus, it is eaten as

prasad - blessed food.