Hindu Rituals & Routines - Part 4

[Pradeep Nair]

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Part -4

Two questions and explanations are given in this chapter.

9. Why do offer food to the Lord before eating it?

Indians make an offering of food to the Lord and later partake of it as prasaada - a holy gift from the Lord. In our daily ritualistic worship (pooja) too we offer naivedyam (food) to the Lord. 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"– 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 criticize the quality of the food we get. We eat it with cheerful acceptance. Before we partake of our 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 plate acknowledging the debt owed by us to the Divine forces for their benign grace and protection, our ancestors for giving us their lineage and a family culture, the sages as our religion and culture have been "realized", maintained and handed down to us by them, our fellow beings who constitute society without the support of which we could not live as we do and other living beings for serving us selflessly. Thereafter the Lord, the life force, who is also within us as the five life-giving physiological functions, is offered the food. This is done with the chant

praanaaya swaahaa, apaanaaya swaahaa,

vyaanaaya swaahaa, udaanaaya swaahaa,

samaanaaya swaahaa, brahmane swaahaa

After offering the food thus, it is eaten as prasaada - blessed food.

10. Why do we fast?

Most devout Indians fast regularly or on special occasions like festivals. On such days they do not eat at all, eat once or make do with fruits or a special diet of simple food. Fasting in Sanskrit is called upavaasa. Upa means "near" + vaasa means "to stay". Upavaasa therefore means staying near (the Lord), meaning the attainment of close mental proximity with the Lord. Then what has upavaasa to do with food? A lot of our time and energy is spent in procuring food items, preparing, cooking, eating and digesting food. Certain food types make our minds dull and agitated. Hence on certain days man decides to save time and conserve his energy by eating either simple, light food or totally abstaining from eating so that his mind becomes alert and pure. The mind, otherwise pre-occupied by the thought of food, now entertains noble thoughts and stays with the Lord. Since it is a self-imposed form of discipline it is usually adhered to with joy. Also every system needs a break and an overhaul to work at its best. Rest and a change of diet during fasting is very good for the digestive system and the entire body. The more you indulge the senses, the more they make their demands.

Fasting helps us to cultivate control over our senses, sublimate our desires and guide our minds to be poised and at peace. Fasting should not make us weak, irritable or create an urge to indulge later. This happens when there is no noble goal behind fasting. The Bhagavad-Gita urges us to eat appropriately - neither too less nor too much -

yukta-aahaara and to eat simple, pure and healthy food (a saatvik diet) even when not fasting.

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I should confess that many rituals explained and those about to appear in further chapters are not practiced very 100% as it should be; some people do practice while knowing the significance, some practice w/out knowing and some aren't at all practicing, blame goes to the cultural erosion, but since last few years a raise of self respect, intention to know and practice these anciently developed practices are clearly visible among Hindus probably because they are paying a lot for not respecting own culture by facing many problems which I can not explain in this open forum.

The cause of cultural erosion

The invaded foreign emperors their forcefully added cultures, British rule, their education/curriculum that is still in practise to certain level, a well planned agenda of British for destroying the Indian culture and related practices by restricting the use of Sanskrit so that the new generation will lack the ability of reading and knowing the Vedas/Upanishads etc are wrote in Sanskrit language (See the image below).

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