The Significance of Offering Food to God - If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it. – Lord Krishna (Bhagabat Gita). Food brings a sense of warmth, hospitality and loving awareness when it is prepared. In most Indian homes, we place considerable importance to the preparation of food and how it is served. For the same reason, in most Indian homes, food is served with care and love to a guest. Importance of Naibidya - In Hinduism, food is considered to be an aspect of Brahman (the Absolute and Almighty one). The rationale for this in Hinduism is that - food nourishes, sustains and it is ingested into the body for our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being. That is one reason why great spiritual masters such as Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Vivekananda and the Avatar Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi emphasized that taste is not the prime function of food, from a spiritual perspective. Only after food is offered to the Almighty, we sit down for our meals. Whether it is for daily meals, birthday, any celebration happening at home, it is offered to God first. In the context of Hinduism, what we offer first is known as Naibidya and when it comes back to the offerer/devotee for consumption, it is called prasada. The offering of food to God is one of the expressions of Bhakti yoga in Hinduism.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 07:07:33 +0000
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