It said that we should offer food/ prasadam fresh to the Lord. But what to do if Milk , curd/ yogurt are 2-3 days old. As in US the milk we get is in a jar of gallon(3.78ltr). One Gallon cannot be finished in a day or two. And same is with the curd/ yogurt. I prepare yogurt/ curd at home.
If it is left can we offer him the next day the same (milk, curd/yogurt) also ?
Thanks
Replies
yes, also even if dairy products seem to be spoiled still we can use them in making bread and offer it to Krishna.
Your servant,
Hare Krishna.
In the same context I have few small queries (which may seem little silly to ask )
If we make curd out of milk which has been offered , is that curd still considered as prasadam?
How many times do we need to offer food to Lord?. Is it like every time I eat.
If I mix the prasadam in the whole food bowl then only it becomes prasadam or without mixing also the whole food bowl becomes prasadam.
What about water? If we offer 1/2 glass of water from the water container, then does the water in the full container also becomes prasadam? Does that mean every time we offer food and water,we need to re-fill water container with fresh water.
What about fruits?
jai shree gokulesh.
Hare Krishna
Ideally one shouldn't be making curd of offered milk. Reason is the newly formed curd cannot be offered because the milk with which it has been made is already offered. On the other hand the curd itself is not offered in one sense because it was offered as milk and not curd.
YS Bharat
Hare Krishna prabhuji
"Ideally one shouldn't be making curd of offered milk."
But since that milk is already a prasad , the curd of that offered milk is also prasad. Then what's wrong in it?
Also dear Bhaktin Mataji,
I make ghee out of the malai from the offered milk which I collect daily in deep freezer.
After the container is filled I make ghee out of it .Now technically this ghee is also a prasad since I made it from offered milk. SO I cannot use that ghee in fresh rotis which I now want to offer to Lord.
If we follow all,then this is really too much. What to do?
Hari bol.
my humble obeisances Mataji,
Then i can not understand Your conception of Love.
Love means we have to do whatever our beloved loves not that which is easier to us to do, isn't it?!
Mother Yashoda used to milk a cow, then boil milk, then make curd out of then churn it for several ours and collect butter then only used to prepare other food stuffs out of that butter then offer them to Her little Gopal.
In Vaishnava etiquette it says that offered food is not suitable for even touching with bhoga what to say of offering it again with other bhoga?
Now decision is Yours.
Just we have to remember as much we do for Krishna He also answers with the same answer. And in our service to Him He sees quality not the quantity.
Of course some type of services are tuft to perform but when we do it even though then Krishna will be pleased seeing our determination to serve to Him in a very good way.
Please forgive me if somehow You are hurt!
Your servant,
Hare Krishna Mataji
Well, even I don't understand the level and conception of my Love for Lord Krishna, only Lord knows. I will leave it up to him. Not to anybody else to judge.
If things are so easy to understand then why 99% of the population in kalyug is under ignorance? I am one among them.
Also my question was very simple and plain. I never said that I would want to offer the offered bhoga again.
I was expecting some simple answer like what would be the basic and the minimum thing we can take care of while offering food to Krishna (something similar to you answered in earlier message).
Not every devotee can jump to a high level stage of devotion at one shot . It is a gradual and a slow process.
Sometimes its better for advanced devotees to think from a perspective of third class devotees or neophytes. That will help. (A small suggestion to all advanced devotees in this forum).
Not every discussion is about arguments and counter arguments.
Please do not take any offense.
Jai shree Krishna.
my humble obeisances dear Alka Mataji, please forgive me again that i hurt You!
In the beginning when i joined Temple life i also used to offer even to the photo of Krishna in that plate in which i used it myself. I did not knew the etiquette.
Then Devotees seeing that were shocked and told me not to do so, even with photo. It was really hard slap to my false ego. For 1 year i was happily offering and now "what are they saying????????"
Then i humbled myself somehow and took new plates especially for Krishna.
In Your case also, yes, Krishna sees only our love and devotion. There was one mataji who used to offer to Lord Rama fruits first checking them herself for sweetness. But Lord Rama used to see the intention of such like act not the external cleanliness....
Or there was another mataji with two kids in Puri. She used to wake up at 3 and directly start to cook kichri for her kids first offering it to Lord Jaganath at her home. She used to brush her teeth while cooking. But her cooking was filled with love and devotion.
And pujaris at the main Temple started to feel that at 3 - 4 AM Lord leaves the Temple and goes somewhere. Then they become to know that Lord comes to her house, eats kichri then goes again back to His place.
When pujaris saw her standard of cleanliness they told her to take bath before and then to cook. The next day she took bath and started her cooking late.
Then next night Lord Jaganath appeared in the dream of head pujari and told that He wants that kichri at 3 AM because He is very hungry.
....
years passes by, mataji leaves her body. From that time they started to offer kichri to Lord Jaganath.
-------------------------------------------
But when Krishna tells us to progress in our service to Him through books, some simple people, or even from dog like people...then it means He wants us to be more serious in our devotion to Him.
This life especially spiritual life is an exam. Everyday there will be exams and we have to tolerant. And correct us.
You are not weak Devotee and i am not elevated devotee. All these i just repeat first of all for my own purification.
Your servant,
Hare Krishna Mataji.
No issues at all.
You always provide valuable information, so such minor things doesn't matter.
Thank you again for your nice quote.
"This life especially spiritual life is an exam. Everyday there will be exams and we have to tolerant. And correct us. "
jai shree gokulesh
my humble obeisances dear Alka Mataji,
if milk was offered then no need to offer it even after making curd from it.
For example, we can cook rice in one big pot then we can take small amount of it and offer but while offering if we request Krishna to eat all whatever is there in the big pot also then He will eat them also. But if we request Him to accept only this much in the small plate then He will accept only this much.
The thing is our request. But if we want to offer now plain rice in small quantity and make curd rice out of that rice which is in big pot then we do not offer that but offer only that small amount and after making curd rice then we can offer that also.
If we mix Maha Prasadam with other part of the food then it whole becomes Prasada.
If we offer water and mix this water with the water in big container then this water becomes as Prasadam and we can not use it for cooking bhoga to Krishna. It will be like offering the same food again even though it is water.
Fruits? Yes, the same thing. If there are many mangoes in the fridge we can take as much as we will eat 4-5 then wash and put to Krishna's plate 1 or 2 and offer it considering to accept other 3-4 and He will accept only these 4-5 mangoes which are washed and offered but not those which are still on fridge not washed or not considered.
And in the fridge again offered Prasadam should be kept separately from bhoga not yet offered food. It is important.
And with dough:
We can make dough out of 1 kg flour and prepare some chapatis and offer them to Krishna in this way the dough also will be Prasadam even though not cooked, but again consideration is needed.
And in the time of emergency when guests come home we can take out from fridge that dough and make chapatti and offer to guests warm, fresh chapattis.
As Srila Prabhupada says that nice housewife always has offered dough ready for the case of sudden guests.
Your servant,
Hare Krishna
Once an item has been offered to lord Krishna, we need not offer the same item again. In your case if freshly purchased milk is offered once and if some more remain for the next day, we need not offer the remaining amount again. It is still prasadam and we can consume. Also care needs to be taken that the remaining milk(or any offered item) shouldn't be used for make another fresh bhoga.
Curd is generally prepared by adding milk to residual curd. Before offering the freshly purchased curd, we need to separately keep some little curd for the preparation of more curd for a later time. And then freshly unoffered milk needs to be added to this little curd to make more curd. And again before offering that curd, we need to separate some little curd for the next time and so on.
YS Bharat
YS Bharat