Prasad on Sanskrit means,
“ prasada (Prasad) 1. an illumined ease and clarity.2. [food offered to a deity or to a spiritual teacher; this same food distributed to devotees as a blessing].”
Hinduism believes that Food is a Gift from God.
In this connection, there is an interesting point in Blessing others in Hinduism.
‘Yogyadha Siddirasthu- May You deserve this.
“Bhogyadha Siddirasthu- May you be endowed with the conditions to enjoy what you have.
You may have very thing going good for you, in terms of Wealth, Home, Children.
Yet you may be a Sugar Patient, Diabetic, you can not eat what you like, enjoy them.
We may have money , we may not get food, hotels/shops may be closed, food may not be available.
Hence we should thank God for having bestowed us with Food and the opportunity to enjoy it.
So God is propitiated by offering food firs to God and partake it with the others later.
This process is called Naivedyam(Please read my post on this).
What has been offered and distributed is called Prasadam.
One meaning of the word is Illumining.
The Food that is offered to God and then distributed is healthy and illumines the Spirit.
Food that is not offered to God first is equivalence to eating stolen food.
Prasads are offered in Temples.
They are then distributed among the devotees.
One of the rules of Naivedyam is that the entire food prepared must be placed before God,
Now Food is prepared in bulk, a token is shown before the Deity and distributed.
Temples, including Tirupati,Palani and elsewhere are following this practice.
Worse still is that a Tender is floated for Prasad ,and the winner gets the Right to prepare and sell them in shops in the Temple premises.
Online booking of Prasad is also available.
This is incorrect and has to dissuaded by the people and the Temple administration must not dilute basic principles.
Citation:
http://www.miraura.org/lit/skgl/skgl-16.html
Related articles
- Special Food Offering, Naivedyam To Gods (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
