The significance of Swami's
Prasadam
One
of the most time honored practices in
Bharatiya culture is the distribution of
prasadam after worship or a religious
ritual. The word prasadam implies a
benediction and normally refers to cooked delicious food that has
been consecrated by first offering to God. Partaking of the
remnants of this offering is believed to be free of sin, as all
beings including plants have life. Partaking of the
prasadam in a reverential manner or
honoring this prasadam as being God
Himself, is also believed to confer great spiritual benefits.
While perhaps
this practice is part of the hoary traditions of
Bharatiya culture since millennia, it
has its resonance in recent times from the following verse of the
Bhagavad Gita (3.13):
Yajna-sistasinah santo
Mucyante sarva-kilbisaih
Bhunjate te tv agham papa
Ye pacanty atma-karanat
“The devotees of the
Lord are released from all kinds of sin because they eat food,
which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for
personal
sense
enjoyment, verily eat only sin”.
So while food is
partaken only after offering to God as a sacrifice, emphasis is
also placed not only on the correct procurement of materials for
the preparation of prasadam (out of
money earned in an honest and truthful way) but also on the
cooking process. Hence it is stressed that there should not only
be personal cleanliness but also mental and emotional cleanliness
during the
cooking process. So prasadam
preparation is usually done after taking a bath, to the chanting
of Vedic hymns or the singing of
bhajans, when the mind is totally
focused on God. After the offering of the food thus cooked in a
sattwic manner to God, it becomes
prasadam.
Food in the
Ashram is “offered” to Swami by the recitation of the
Brahmarpanam prayer, comprising of
two verses (4.24 and 15.14) of the Bhagavad
Gita, as under:
Brahmarpanam Brahma Havir
Brahmagnou Brahmana hutam
Brahmaiva Tena Gantavyam
Brahma Karma Samadhina
Aham Vaisvanaro Bhutva
Praninam Deham asrita
Pranapana Samayuktah
Pachamy annam Chaturvidham
“The
whole creation being a gross projection of
Brahman, the Cosmic Consciousness itself; so the food too
is Brahman, the process of offering
it is Brahman, it is being offered to
the fire of Brahman. He who thus sees
Brahman in action, alone reaches
Brahman.
I am the fire
of digestion in the stomach of all living entities, and I join
with the air of life, incoming and outgoing, to digest the four
types of food (solid, liquid, semifluid, and fluid) which they
eat”.
These stanzas from
the Bhagavad Gita makes us aware that
food is not intended merely to appease the endless demands of our
senses of taste and smell. It is a reminder that by thinking of
God in every act we do, even the act of taking food becomes an
excellent sadhana or spiritual
exercise. If we thus remember the Divine and then start eating
food, then the food also gets purified and becomes
prasadam or a Gift of God.
Following this
ancient ritual, prasadam is
distributed on a grand scale on two major occasions in the Ashram.
(A token prasadam of a sweet or a
fruit is also distributed after Swami’s discourse or on major
festival days). The first major prasadam
distribution is after the 24 hour Akhanda
Bhajan (about 2 weeks before Swami’s birthday) in November.
The second distribution is after the all night bhajan singing on
the occasion of Maha Sivarathri,
usually
in late February or early March. The fast is broken the following
morning by the serving of prasadam to
the thousands of devotees assembled in Sai Kulwant Hall.
Normally 2 dishes
are offered as prasadam. The first is
Tamarind rice, a sour dish and the
other is usually Sakara pongal
(Sweetened rice) or some sweet item. As with everything Swami
does, there is an inner significance to this also. The mixing of
the sweet and the sour in the same bowl, represents that the
opposites of life, the pleasure and pain, the hot and the cold,
grief and happiness, etc. are all mixed together. We have to
partake of both with equanimity, digest and go beyond.
Or as Swami says,
“Pleasure is an interval between two pains. Pain is an interval
between two pleasures. Life is like a piece of paper; there is no
chance of having only one side of it. Both sides will be there”.
Swami has also
said, “The face is pleasure and the feet are sorrow. When a guest
comes to your home, you can’t allow only the face inside and keep
the feet outside. If you want to welcome, you must welcome both
pleasure and pain equally. If you don’t want to welcome, you
should reject both”.
The preparation of
these two (sweet and sour) items and their timely distribution to
the thousands of assembled devotees in Sai Kulwant Hall represent
a lot of planning and labor. Procurement of items is done a few
weeks prior as the amount of items used are colossal. The cooking
starts a few hours before the distribution, and many cooks as well
as Seva Dal volunteers are involved.
The cooks doing this preparation have to do this in addition to
their normal duties of cooking for the canteens, and they do it
cheerfully as yet another way of serving the Lord, by serving His
devotees.
Once the items have
been prepared they are stacked for distribution usually in the
Women’s Canteen close to Sai Kulwant Hall. Swami’s students
provide the necessary labor for distribution at the completion of
the bhajan singing. A human line is
formed that snakes its way from the entrance of the canteen to the
verandah of Sai Kulwant Hall. The serving vessels containing the
food is passed from hand to hand and stacked neatly in rows on and
beside the verandah. Adequate quantities are also made available
on the women’s side, for distribution by the lady teachers and the
girl students of the Institute.
At the conclusion of
the bhajan singing the food is
blessed by Swami and the distribution starts. The devotees arrange
themselves in rows facing each other, leaving a small space for
serving in between. They are given bowls or plates made of leaves
(hence bio-degradable) in which individual portions are served.
Students from the Institute, even young boys from the High School,
volunteer to serve their Lord by serving
prasadam to the devotees. All the devotees then honor
Swami’s prasadam by eating it quietly
and with reverence, relishing every tasty morsel while their minds
and hearts are still on the Lord, spiritually surcharged by the
many hours of bhajan singing.
Heart to Heart
captures this unique event for you in pictures, and thus brings
for you a small slice of Puttaparthi Ashram life.
Source:
Radio Sai E-Magazine,
March 1, 2004
http://www.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/05March01/07_Prasanthi_Diary/
02_The_significance_of_Prasadam/prasadam.htm
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