{"id":4280,"date":"2023-10-09T19:45:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T08:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/?p=4280"},"modified":"2024-05-31T19:48:21","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T09:48:21","slug":"what-is-prasada-or-hindu-religious-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/what-is-prasada-or-hindu-religious-food\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Prasada or Hindu Religious Food"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Pras\u0101da<\/b>,\u00a0<b>prasadam<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0<b>prasad<\/b>\u00a0is a religious offering in\u00a0<a title=\"Hinduism\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hinduism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hinduism<\/a>. Prasad is cooked in large quantities during major festivals.\u00a0 Deepavali is one such festival during which Prasad is cooked for thousands of devotees and requires more Pujaris (priests) than other times.<\/p>\n<p>Most often\u00a0<i>Prasada<\/i>\u00a0is vegetarian food especially cooked for devotees after praise and thanksgiving to a god.\u00a0<b>Mahaprasada<\/b>\u00a0(also called bhandar\u0101),<sup id=\"cite_ref-maha5_1-0\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Prasada#cite_note-maha5-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0is the consecrated food offered to the deity in a\u00a0<a title=\"Hindu temple\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hindu_temple\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hindu temple<\/a>\u00a0which is then distributed and partaken by all the devotees regardless of any orientation.<sup id=\"cite_ref-maha3_2-0\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Prasada#cite_note-maha3-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[2]<\/a><\/sup><sup id=\"cite_ref-maha1_3-0\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Prasada#cite_note-maha1-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><sup id=\"cite_ref-maha2_4-0\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Prasada#cite_note-maha2-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[4]<\/a><\/sup><i>\u00a0Prasada<\/i>\u00a0is also sometimes called\u00a0<i><b>naivedya<\/b><\/i>, also spelt\u00a0<b>naivedhya<\/b>,\u00a0<b>naibedya<\/b>\u00a0or naived(h)yam. The food offered to God is called naivedya, while the sacred food sanctified and returned by God as a blessing is called prasada.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<i>prasada<\/i>\u00a0is to be consumed by attendees as a holy offering. The offerings may include cooked food,\u00a0<a class=\"mw-redirect\" title=\"Fruits\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fruits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fruits<\/a>\u00a0and confectionery sweets. Vegetarian food is usually offered and later distributed to the devotees who are present in the\u00a0<a title=\"Hindu temple\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hindu_temple\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">temple<\/a>. Sometimes this vegetarian offering will exclude prohibited items such as garlic, onion, mushroom, etc.<sup id=\"cite_ref-maha3_2-1\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Prasada#cite_note-maha3-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Offering of food items forms part of the\u00a0<i><a title=\"Upachara\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Upachara\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">upachara<\/a><\/i>\u00a0or services to a Hindu deity in many Hindu traditions but is not universal. The\u00a0<i><a title=\"Murti\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Murti\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">murti<\/a><\/i>\u00a0(icon) is revered as a living entity who is offered food, fruits, and betelnut among others.<\/p>\n<p>Temples usually have stricter worship routines that include offering naivedya multiple times a day. Most\u00a0<strong>temples allow only trained pujaris to cook the\u00a0<i>naivedya<\/i>.<\/strong>\u00a0The\u00a0<i>naivedya<\/i>\u00a0offered directly to the deity is considered as\u00a0<i>prasada<\/i>, the deity having \u201cenjoyed\u201d it. This can be considered to be a symbolic rather than a literal offering.<\/p>\n<p>Offerings of food in home shrines are relatively simpler than the Hindu temples. A common practice is to mix the\u00a0<i>prasada<\/i>\u00a0back into the remaining food before partaking it.<\/p>\n<p>Tasting during preparation or eating the\u00a0<i>naivedya<\/i>\u00a0food before offering it to God is strictly forbidden. The food is first placed before a deity and specific prayers are offered with accompanying rituals. Afterwards, the food is considered as having been blessed by God, and has officially become the sanctified\u00a0<i>prasada<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Offering food and subsequently receiving\u00a0<i>prasada<\/i>\u00a0is central to the practice of\u00a0<i><a title=\"Puja (Hinduism)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Puja_(Hinduism)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">puja<\/a>.<\/i><sup id=\"cite_ref-:0_8-1\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Prasada#cite_note-:0-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pras\u0101da,\u00a0prasadam\u00a0or\u00a0prasad\u00a0is a religious offering in\u00a0Hinduism. Prasad is cooked in large quantities during major festivals.\u00a0 Deepavali is one such festival during which Prasad is cooked for thousands of devotees and requires [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,24,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hindu-education","category-hindu-festivals","category-vegetarianism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}