Do DEvotees Still Chant Sarira-avidya-jal before taking Prasadam ?

[Guest guest]

Mealtime Prayers are Very Important to Americans From Every Tradition

http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/

06/04/FD103622.DTL

 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, June 4, 2003: Pausing a few minutes to say a

prayer of gratitude and upliftment before partaking of a meal is a

tradition followed by over 64% of homes in America. During this time of

reflection, families are brought closer and grounded. Mark

Jurgensmeyer, professor of sociology and religious studies and director

of Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara says, "It's not

just that the food that is blessed but that the process of eating is

itself a renewal. The idea of ingestion is almost universal within

religious traditions as a sacramental act." To show how important the

power of prayer at mealtime is to the American people, the book called

Graces: Prayers for Everyday Meals and Special Occasions written by

June Cotner has sold more than 200,000 copies. Cotner says, "A reverent

pause before eating in an edgy world affirms family and teaches

reverence." She also believes that the popularity of her book shows

that people are craving spirituality in their lives. Maura Singer, a

student in interfaith ministry at the Naropa Institute in Oakland says,

"She anticipates the pause that precedes a meal, a 'magical' moment

when prayer and awe and praise come through. From gratitude springs

openness, leading to compassion, then peace, justice and finally

action. In much religious thought....the Christian eucharist, the Hindu

prasad, among others....the transformational force of food has

engendered dense theological discourse for thousands of years."

 

A popular Hindu meal prayer is the following chant, which can be done

in Sanskrit or English:

 

Food-Blessing Chant

 

A Prayer of Gratitude to the Source of Sustenance.

 

Lines 1-4 are from Shri Adi Sankara's Annapurnashtakam.

Lines 5-6 are the Isha Upanishad invocation.

Lines 7-8 are a traditional Saivite closing.

 

Aum annapurne sadapurne shankaraprana vallabhe;

Jnanavairagya siddhyartham bhiksham dehi cha pArvati.

MatA cha pArvatI devI pita devo maheshvarah

bandhavah shiva bhaktashcha svadesho bhuvanatrayam.

 

Aum purnamadah purnamidam purnAtpurnam udachyate,

PUrnasya purnamAdaya purname vava shishyate.

 

Aum shantih shantih shantih.

Aum shivarpanamastu.

 

Translation:

 

Aum, beloved Shakti of Siva, Fullness everlasting and fully manifest as

this food; O, Mother of the universe, nourish us with this gift of food

so that we may attain knowledge, dispassion and spiritual perfection.

Goddess Parvati is my mother. God Maheshvara is my father. All devotees

of Siva are my family. All three worlds are my home.

 

Aum, Siva is Fullness. Creation is fullness. From Siva's Fullness flows

this world's fullness. This fullness issues from that Fullness, yet

that Fullness remains full.

 

Aum, peace, peace, peace.

Aum, this I offer unto Siva.

 

(Note: In this simplified Sanskrit transliteration a capital letter

other than at the beginning of a line indicates a long vowel)

[gHari 0]

Yes, according to the Folio Vedabase:<blockquote><center>Prayers for honering Prasadam

PrasAda-sevAya From GItAvalI

 

zarIra avidyA-jAl, joDendriya tAhe kAl,

jIve phele viSaya-sAgore

tA'ra madhye jihvA ati, lobhamoy sudurmati,

tA'ke jetA kaThina saMsAre

 

kRSNa baDo doyAmay, karibAre jihvA jay,

sva-prasAd-anna dila bhAi

sei annAmRta pAo, rAdhA-kRSNa-guNa gAo,

preme DAko caitanya-nitAi

</center>

O Lord, this material body is a place of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths leading to death. Somehow we have fallen into this ocean of material sense enjoyment, and of all the senses the tongue is the most voracious and uncontrollable. It is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world. But You, dear KRSNa, are very kind to us and have given us such nice prasAdam just to control the tongue. Now we take this prasAdam to our full satisfaction and glorify You--SrI SrI RAdhA and KRSNa--and in love call for the help of Lord Caitanya and NityAnanda.

 

<center>

mahA-prasAde govinde nAma-brahmaNi vaiSNave

svalpa-puNya-vatAM rAjan vizvAso naiva jAyate

</center>

O king, for those with little pious credit, faith in mahA-prasAda, SrI Govinda, the holy name, and the VaiSNavas never arises. [MahAbhArata]</blockquote>

 

I just noticed that this English for the prasadam verse is slightly different from the one I memorized way back (missing "Let us take this prasadam to our full satisfaction, in the glorification of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha and Krsna, and call in love for the help of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda Prabhu" which I quite like better). Wow! More! It was a "lump" of ignorance, and "somehow or other we have fallen into this ocean of material sense gratification", and "voracious and difficult to control", and "therefore Sri Krsna has given us this nice prasadam to help control the sense of tongue".

 

It's funny, for some reason I only memorized the English and once on a preaching event with the Toronto Guru, he had to defer to me to offer the prayer for the High School teachers' luncheon in English. If you knew Bhaktimarga Swami's memory, you'd realize what an unusual event that had to be. (Maybe Krsna had been setting me up all these years for my one minute of service at the pulpit). The group of Catholic School teachers enjoyed and appreciated this prayer. And I aced it - been practicing word-for-word for twenty or more years.

 

I never knew that mahaprasadam shloka. Maybe I'll get a chance to use it, if I can mezzzzmorize it?

 

gHari

[theist 1]

Which is better, praying in a language we don't understand or praying in one we do.

 

I prefer the English myself. How can I pray with any sincerity if I don't even understand what I am saying.

 

We have a tendancy to think if its in some exotic language then it will be more effective. I'm not so sure.

 

Of course, this is not refering to Krsna names.

[stonehearted 0]

theist: Which is better, praying in a language we don't understand or praying in one we do.

 

I prefer the English myself. How can I pray with any sincerity if I don't even understand what I am saying.

 

We have a tendancy to think if its in some exotic language then it will be more effective. I'm not so sure.

 

Well said. I really like the sound of the Bengali (in the case of BVT's prasada-sevaya) and Sanskrit (the mahaprasadam prayer), but that's a personal preference that has nothing to do with spiritual efficacy (although I'd be tempted to make a case that whatever makes a deeper impression on my rock-hard heart is more efective). I've spent much of my life steeped in music and poetry, so I like the way the language works.

 

When I was a gurukula headmaster and teacher (never been sued!), we had the children recite these prayers in both their original language and in English.

 

Here on the Big Island, we have some devotees who have taken many of the bhajans devotees commonly sing and put them to English words that work with the tunes many are familiar with. That includes BVT's "Yashomati-nandana, Brajabara-nagara, . . ." which I much prefer in the original.

[theist 1]

to be able to follow along with the original languages. But somehow it just doesn't stick in my brain. I can sense a certain beauty there that is going past me and I am very much for preserving the original. I really envy devotees like Jagat and others that have mastered the original languages. It must be so nice to disect a shloka directly and appreciate the poetic form and subtlties of the prose.

 

Oh well, maybe next time around.

 

I suspect that the following generations will do well if they learn Sanskrit and Begali as children right along with English

[Haridham 0]

The Sri Sri Radha Madhan Mohan temple in vancouver bc canada chants Sarira Avidya Jal during the sunday feasts. Execpt on Ekadasi.

 

Hare krsna

 

 

[Guest guest]

my kids do everytime they take prasad, it may be conditioning at least they remember who's responsible the provided or the provider

---gopijana---