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Prasad:  Blessed Food

“Prasad is what the guru gives the devotees.  It is food that the guru has blessed.  When you go to your mother’s house, does not your mother feed you? What your mother gives you is just food.  What Swamiji gives you and what the guru gives you is prasad.”

“Swamiji will come in an astral body.  You can taste and feel the difference between ordinary food and the food that is blessed.”

“When you prepare food, you should have a lot of interest and concentration in its preparation.  If you do not concentrate on your work when you are cooking then that food will not be good for the health.  The food will upset your stomach.”

“There is a poem by another yogi in India which says that even a small spoon of milk of the cow is good for our health.  However, even a pot full of donkey’s milk is not as good.  In the same way food that is prepared out of devotion and interest is good, even if you only take a handful.”

“People can take any food that they like.  If they practice meditation every day for one hour, the meditation itself will let them know what kind of food is good for them.  Let us say that Swamiji tells a person not to eat a particular type of food.  Then whenever he tries to meditate, his mind will start dwelling on that kind of food.  That’s the reason he does not want to specify any kind of food.”

It was night time at a devotee’s house in Bangalore and Swamiji offered prasad to a visitor who had taken a vow not to take food after dark.  He politely declined, but Swamiji insisted.  Swamiji said what he offered was prasad.  It was not food.  Swamiji told the man that eating prasad from a yogi does not break any vows about food.

Swamiji gave an example from that same afternoon.  He had received a visit from the hereditary head of the Dharmasthala temple, a temple dedicated to Shiva and located near Mangalore.  That man had taken a vow not to take any food except in his own house.  Yet when he came for darshan at Swamiji’s ashram in Bangalore, he ate the prasad which Swamiji gave him.  Swamiji said,

“There is another rule.  You should take prasad from a yogi.”

This and more can be read in the books on Shivabalayogi, including  Divine Play,  Swamiji's Treasure,  and Tapas Shakti.