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Madhya 14.25-.–The prasāda sent by the King had been offered at the Balagaṇḍi festival and included uncooked milk products and fruits. It was all of the finest quality, and there was no end to the variety.
Madhya 14.26-There was curd, fruit juice, coconut, mango, dried coconut, jackfruit, various kinds of bananas and palm fruit seeds.
Madhya 14.27-There were also oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, almonds, dried fruit, raisins and dates.
Madhya 14.28-There were hundreds of different types of sweetmeats like manoharā-lāḍu, sweets like amṛta-guṭikā and various types of condensed milk.
Madhya 14.29-There were also papayas and saravatī, a type of orange, and also crushed squash. There was also regular cream, fried cream and a type of purī made with cream.
Madhya 14.30-There were also sweets like hari-vallabha and sweets made of seṅoti flowers, karpūra flowers and mālatī flowers. There were pomegranates, sweets made with black pepper, sweets made with fused sugar, and amṛti-jilipi.
Madhya 14.31-There was lotus flower sugar, a kind of bread made from urad dhal, crispy sweetmeats, sugar candy, fried rice sweets, sesame seed sweets and cookies made from sesame seeds.
Madhya 14.32-There were sweetmeats made from sugarcane candy in the form of oranges, lemons and mangoes along with fruits, flowers and leaves.
Madhya 14 .33-There was yogurt, milk, butter, buttermilk, fruit juice, a preparation made of fried yogurt and sugar candy, and salty mung dhal sprouts with shredded ginger.
Madhya 14.34-There were also various types of pickles-lemon pickle, berry pickle and so on. Indeed, I am not able to describe the variety of food offered to Lord Jagannātha.
Madhya 14.35–When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu saw half the garden filled with a variety of prasāda, He was very satisfied.
Madhya 14.36-Indeed, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was fully satisfied just to see how Lord Jagannātha accepted all the food.
PURPORT-Following in the footsteps of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, a Vaiṣṇava should be fully satisfied simply to see a variety of food offered to the Deity of Jagannātha or Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. A Vaiṣṇava should not hunger for a variety of food for his own sake; rather, his satisfaction is in seeing various foods being offered to the Deity. In his Gurv-aṣṭaka, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura writes:
catur-vidha-śrī-bhagavat-prasāda-svādv-anna-tṛptān hari-bhakta-saṅghān kṛtvaiva tṛptiṁ bhajataḥ sadaiva vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam
“The spiritual master is always offering Kṛṣṇa four kinds of delicious food [analyzed as that which is licked, chewed, drunk and sucked]. When the spiritual master sees that the devotees are satisfied by eating bhagavat-prasāda, he is satisfied. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master.”
The spiritual master’s duty is to engage his disciples in preparing varieties of nice food to offer the Deity. After being offered, this food is distributed as prasāda to the devotees. These activities satisfy the spiritual master, although he himself does not eat or require such a variety of prasāda. By seeing to the offering and distribution of prasāda, he himself is encouraged in devotional service.
Some Conclusions—So far today, the day before Gaura Purnima here is our list of offerings to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and Others….
Fresh garden salad with dressing, cauly pakoras, fig chutney, sweet and sour subji, basmati rice, pudding, mango slices, dried cranberries, sour cherries, cherry tomatoes, oranges, walmuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, raisins, plum syrup, fig preserves, veggie sticks, yogurt with elderberry syrup, plum butter, plum jelly, and more to come for sure tomorrow….
This is nothing compared to the list made in Jagannatha Puri, but we do what we can. Some years ago we always made at least 108 different preps, but now we are older, and there will be no devotee gathering here, so we shall adjust for the new “circumstances” and hope the Lord is satisfied with our humble and meager offerings.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das