Making Offering:
Have Heart, Follow Rules

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
3 January 2019, part 6

You must understand how to serve the Deities. "Sraddhaya sri-murti sevana: serve the Deities with faith." You may have a good heart, but it is necessary to know some rules and regulations—if you know the rules, if you get the proper teachings and lessons from your Guru and senior Vaishnavs, then you will be an even greater practitioner. You must practise (be a practitioner), and you must be a great servant. These are the main things.

I remember when I came here many years ago I was jokingly telling everyone one story. It was 1998-1999, after I took sannyas. At that time, the prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, went to Bihar, and the person who was serving him food gave him a mango—without taking out the skin, without cutting it. Vajpayee did not say anything, but he was a little annoyed—how was he supposed to cut it? He did not have a knife or anything. I heard that later, although it was the fault of the man who gave the mango to Vajpayee, the man who was in charge of that visit got suspended from his job.

Then, if we offer a whole fruit like that, the fruit may look very nice, but how is Gurudev, Krishna supposed to eat it? Are you going to give them a knife and have them do the job themselves (peel it, cut it, etc.)? Service means you must arrange everything, then it will be proper service. When we offer the bhog, we must give an asan (a mat for sitting), give some water, etc. You must serve the same way you serve your relative. When you give some food, some fruit to your son, do you just give him the fruit as it is and say, "Eat it!"? Gopal is small. When you have a very small son, do you give him a fruit like this? How will he know how to eat it? Maybe he will eat it with the skin.

You must learn to provide everything, learn how to offer fruit. When you carry some food with you, it is ok, you carry it with the skin, but when you offer bhog in your house, you must peel the fruit, you must cut it. Imagine you come home and give rice, flour, vegetables just like this without cooking them, "Here, Krishna, eat it!" [His Divine Grace laughs.]

On another occasion, hearing the pujari ring the bell, His Divine Grace asked the devotee coming out of the altar room:

—Prabhu, are you already offering the bhog? Have you cut the mango?

—No.

—Oh, do you offer the whole fruit like this, without taking out the skin? When you offer mango, liches, etc. you must peel them. You can leave the seed, but you must take the skin out. Where did you learn puja? Offering mangoes with the skin is South Indian style. You are doing wrong. This is against the rules, it is an aparadh (offence), and when you make an aparadh you have to suffer for it. In some place, a devotee fell down after having been doing puja for thirty years. And how will they give prasadam to everybody? Offering the fruit and then cutting it?... You must learn from a senior devotee. Skin has to be taken out.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Download (0.9 Mb)