Why do we offer Naivedyam ? Sri D N Rao

[Guest guest]

Consider the following situation:

A cook prepares a tasty meal for the master of the house with a lot of

care and offers it to the master. What is he offering? All the

ingredients of the meal are owned by the master anyway. Not quiet. The

meal is different from its ingredients. It has an added component of

service - of cooking with interest and care and of serving it in a

pleasant manner. The cook is really offering that value addition to

the ingredients caused by his service and the master is please. In the

same way the bhakta makes an offering of the naivedyam to the Lord. It

is really the thought of offering and the service of putting the

naivedyam together that is being offered.

 

However, this argument remains valid as long as the bhakta considers

himself as an entity different from the Lord. The argument ceases to

exist the moment the bhakta realises that he or she is one with the

Lord and there is no difference. Once this realization comes to the

bhakta, offering naivedyam beomes a meanngless ritual.

 

But one need not stop offering naivedyam after coming to the illusion

(maya) that he or she is one with the Lord and there is no need to

offer any naivedyam to oneself. The feeling has to be really perceived.

 

I would like draw attention of the readers to a story from Mhabharata.

Guru told his disciples (which included Yudhisthira) to lead a lesson

which said " Always speak the truth. Truth alone wins " . Next day the

guru asked his students if everyone had learnt the lesson. All except

Yudhisthira nodded their head. So the guru asked Yudhisthita to repeat

the lesson and othes to proceed to the next lesso. Many days passed

and Yudhisthira was stuck at that lesson. The guru asked him what was

wrong with him and why he was not finishing the reading of such a

simple lesson. Yudhisthira's reply was " I am not convinced so I cannot

claim that I have learnt the lesson "

 

In the same way as long is the bhakta is reminded by his mind about

his not offering the naivedyam one can say that bhata has not realised

the oneness of his with the God and he needs to offer the naivedyam to

the God and request him to put him in the right path.

D.N.Rao