Mahaprasadam The residents of Puri have a very special tradition about honoring Mahaprasadam. It is said that the presence of the Lord can be more fully appreciated through the taste of the Mahaprasadam than through the direct Darshana of the Deity. Practically speaking all aspects of life in Jagannatha Puri revolve around Mahaprasadam: the main marriage ritual is considered performed simply by the act of husband and wife partaking Mahaprasadam. The Puri-vasis (“residents of Puri”) say this is the real marriage, everything else is just celebration. All the Samskaras here are solemnized by Mahaprasadam - birth, death, name giving, initiation, etc - both by consuming it and by distributing it to the brahmanas, family members, relatives, friends and neighbors. Even at the beginning of some important work, like the inauguration of a building site or the opening of a new house or shop, the occasion requires distribution of Mahaprasadam to workers and neighbors. Another interesting thing is that, when honoring Mahaprasadam with a large number of people, like in these celebrations, the customary rule allows a quick cleaning and a quick serving of a new batch of guest: everyone must start eating at the same time (as soon as the ghi is poured on the guests’ plates over the plain rice, which takes only a few seconds) and when the first guest stands up indicating that he has finished his meal, everyone else is supposed to stop eating and get up to leave. While taking Mahaprasadam everyone is considered on the same level, with no difference of birth or social position, and it is also common to see two or more people eat from the same plate without any problem, something that could never happen in the case of ordinary food. The devotees who honor Mahaprasadam should humble themselves by sitting on the bare ground. It is considered an offense to sit on an asana or even on a piece of cloth or mat while honoring Mahaprasadam. As customary with all other foods, Mahaprasadam is only eaten with one’s right hand. As a mark of respect, Mahaprasadam should never touch the ground, and to serve and eat Mahaprasadam, generally hands are used rather than spoons. After taking Mahaprasadam one should not rinse one’s mouth by spitting the water out; the water should be swallowed so that whatever remains of the Mahaprasadam are not disrespectfully spitted on the ground. One should also wash one’s hands before touching other things. The glories of Mahaprasadam are stated in the shastra. Padma Purana: sushkam paryushitam vapi nitam va dura-desatah prapta-matrena bhoktavyam natra kala-vicharana na desa-niyamas tatra na kala-niyamas tatha praptam annam drutam sishtair bhoktavyam harir abravit “One should never hesitate to accept prasadam without any consideration of time and place, and even if it has dried, it has been tasted by someone else, or if it has come from a long distance. Sri Hari teaches that a learned person will accept prasadam immediately without hesitation as soon as he receives it.” Padma Purana (7.11.3-15): chandalena samsprstam grahyam tatrannam agrajaih sakshad vishnur yatas tatra candalo’pi dvijottamah tatrannapachika laksmih svayam bhokta janardanah tasmat tad annam viprarshe daivatair api durlabham hari-bhuktavasishtam tat pavitram bhuvi durlabham annam ye bhunjate martyas tesham muktir na durlabha brahmadyas tridasah sarve tad-annam atidurlabham bhunjate nityan adatya manushyanam cha ka katha na yasye ramate chittam tasminn anne sudurlabhe tam eva vishnu-dveshtaram prahuh sarve maharshayah pavitram bhuvi sarvatra tad-annam papa-nashanam tatha pavitram sarvatra divyam yadyapi dvijasattama tathapi vajra-tulyam syat papa-parvata-darane purvairjitani papani kshayam yasyati yasya vai bhaktih pravartate tasminn anne tasya durlabhe bahu janmarjitam punyam yasya yasyati samkshayam tasminn anne dvija-srestha tasya bhaktih pravartate “Even the highest among the brahmanas will accept the Mahaprasadam rice that has been touched by a chandala, because there in Puri even the chandalas are not different from Vishnu, and therefore equal to the best of the brahmanas. In Puri, Lakshmi Herself takes charge of the cooking, and Lord Janardana (Vishnu, who takes care of all people) eats the food She cooks. Such type of food is difficult to obtain even for the Devas. The leftovers of the Lord’s meals are extremely pure and holy, and difficult to obtain in this world. Those mortal beings that succeed in obtaining such food will easily attain liberation. All the Devas, starting from Brahma, ardently aspire to obtain that food and always search it, what to speak of the value of the prasadam for the human beings. One who does not feel great joy in accepting the prasadam, that destroys all sins, is to be considered as hostile to Vishnu. Although this food is sweet and soft, it is actually as powerful as thunderbolt in destroying sins, increasing the pious merits and arousing pure devotion in those who consume it.” According to the rituals followed in Hindu temples throughout India, it is mandatory that food cooked by a Brahmin male can be offered to the presiding Deity. In the Jagannatha temple, the food is cooked by Suaras, who are not Brahmins. This is an exceptional rule, as according to the strict rules of worship, if Suaras cooked food in any temple other than the Jagannatha Temple in Puri, their food would be considered unfit for offering to the Deities. Purushottama Kshetra is considered to be the most important seat of Tantra, known as Oddiyana Pitha, and the presiding Deity of the Pitha is Bhairava Jagannatha and Bhairavi Vimala. Jagannatha is worshipped as a Tantric Deity: vimala bhairavi jatra jagannath astu bhairava. According to Tantric practices, anyone who is a Tantra Sadhaka is qualified as a brahmana. Thus generally in the Tantric Culture there is no discrimination between caste or race. This is further confirmed by Kularnava Tantra: pravritte bhairavi chakre sarve varna dvijatayaha nivritte bhairavi chakre sarve varnaha prithak prithak “Anyone who is inside the Bhairavi Chakra is a brahmana, while people outside the Bhairavi Chakra have various social positions”. Since the Jagannatha Temple is inside the Bhairavi Chakra, thus the Suaras are automatically qualified as brahmanas and thus food cooked by them can be offered to Jagannatha. A unique word used for the food offered to Jagannatha before it is offered to Vimala (after which it is called Mahaprasad) is “Manohi”. The word “Manohi” is used to indicate the food offered to any Deva or royal representative especially the ruling King. Food offered to Jagannatha is called “Sarpamanohi”, food offered to Nilachakra is called “Chakramanohi”. Food offered to the three principal Deities is called Amrita Manohi Bhoga since the Deities cast their nectarous glance on the food. Only the food offered to Jagannatha inside the Jagannath Temple at Puri is called Mahaprasadam because of the following reasons: * Before the food is cooked, a Rosha Homa is performed using the rituals of the Vaishnava Agni Samskara, and this Vaishnava Agni or fire is used for starting the stoves. The clay stove used for the cooking is also constructed in a Tantric way as Satkonatmaka Agni Yantra, with six elevations to hold the pots. Then the Navachakra or nine cooking pots are placed on top of the Agni Yantra stove. * Mahalakshmi Herself cooks food inside the temple kitchen. * The food was served to the Deities on a golden or silver plate (now plates are made of brass) is kept on top of the Sri yantra (made with ground rice powder) near the Ratna simhasana. * The water used for the ablution is empowered with the Patala Nrisimha Mantra. * The three plates are empowered with the bijas for the three Deities: shrim for Bada Thakura, hrim for Subhadra, klim for Jagannatha. * After being offered to Jagannatha, the food is offered to Vimala. After being offered to Vimala, the Annabali is offered to the eight Sattvika Vaishnavas: Visvakshena, Sukadeva, Prahlada, Narada, Hanuman, Garuda, Devala and Indradyumna. Only at this point the food is known as Mahaprasada. The present kitchen of Jagannatha is made of 32 rooms and a total of 752 stoves, producing 5,000 kg of food every day. During some special festival time, like in Kartika, the daily amount arrives at 10,000 kg. About 600 cooks work in Jagannatha’s kitchen every day, of whom 200 are Suar, who actually cook the preparations on the fires, 200 are Joganya, who help the chefs by lighting the fires, washing the pots and utensils, fetching water etc, and 200 are Tunya, who work in a special area called agana in front of the kitchens by cutting vegetables and fruits, grinding coconut, spices, grains for flours etc. The masala (spice mixtures) are always prepared fresh, grinding together on stones the dry uncooked ingredients, sometimes with a little water or ghi to obtain a paste. The temple standards are very conservative: no gas or kerosene is used (everything is cooked on wood stoves) and only a limited variety of ingredients are allowed. So in the Mahaprasadam in Puri you will never find potatoes, tomatoes, cauliflowers, cabbage, peas, capsicum, chilli or coriander, cucumber, karela, bhindi, green beans, beans, or parboiled rice. The pumpkin used in the recipes is a local indigenous variety. A number of preparations are also banned from Jagannatha’s kitchen, notably panir (pressed cottage cheese) and chapati (roti), although one type of chapati (called khali roti) is prepared with boiled flour and puri are regularly offered. The most popular item in Jagannatha’s kitchen, however, are pancakes (called pithas), of many different types. The ingredients used are as follows: * vegetables: muli, patola, johni, desi alu, khanda mula, saru, kankana, plantain (green banana), spinach, pumpkin, eggplant, mango flowers, tala flowers, * fruits: coconut, amla, tala fruit, banana, mango, apple, grapes, sitaphal, chikku, guava, orange (tangerine), raisin, * spices and condiments: ginger, black mustard seeds, cardamom, red cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, ajwain, nutmeg, cloves, gur (unrefined cane sugar), white sugar, * pulses and grains: urad dal, harar dal, mung dal, chickpeas, besan (chickpea flower), atta (whole wheat flour), maida (white wheat flour), * milk products: milk, dahi (yogurt), makhana (butter), chenna (fresh cottage cheese), rabri (creamy cooked down milk), khua (solid cooked down milk), khiri (milk and rice pudding), ghi (clarified butter). Our information about the daily offerings to Jagannatha in Sri Mandira has been obtained from the Record of Rights of the temple. As a detailed explanation and description of the various preparations would take too much space, we have decided to publish it separately in another volume.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:07:10 +0000
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