FROM PUTTAPARTHI...SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT - 45: PRASAADAM & NAIVEDYAM !!!

SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT – 45

 

In the South Indian tradition, there are 2 words that are very commonly used during functions & rituals one performs in adoration of God. These words are: Prasaadam, and Naivedyam. The former word as we all have heard is often distributed during functions; the word essentially means a blessing from God. But an everyday affair in many houses & temples.

 

The other word Naivedyam means an offering to God. During the Pooja ritual, food and other items are offered to God by way of consecrating them but in our context, any loving offering we make becomes a Naivedyam.

 

In other words we get Prasaadam from God & we offer Naivedyam to God! Similarly what we are is a gift from the Universe and what we become is our gift to the Universe!

Each one of us has received some gifts from God. These gifts are the Prasaadam of God.  Life must be so lived that one makes use of these Prasaadam and gives it back to God as Naivedyam. When we use our gifts for the benefit of Society in a reverential manner, we are actually offering Naivedyam to God.

 

For example, we offer flowers to God. We pluck the flowers and make a garland before offering. In worldly parlance, "some value addition" is made before offering to God! Just like that, we must utilize the talents / the skills / the knowledge / the material wealth that we have in a suitable manner, do what we're supposed to, i.e.; make some value addition and offer them back to God.

Just like our nail is a part of our finger, the finger is a part of our hand, the hand is a part of our arm and the arm is a part of our whole body, man is a limb of Society, Society is a limb of Nature and Nature is a limb of God!!!

Speaking during a concluding function in Dec. '96, the famous West Indian cricketer Clive Lloyd said, "Talent is a gift of God and it must be offered back to God." 

 

Similarly, a Pakistani singer of Ghazals when asked why she was not adopting modern methods of singing replied, "I can't do that. Ghazals are a gift of Allah and I must offer it back to Allah in a pure form and not with modern distortions!!!"

The concept is the same irrespective of religion!

 

The great Isaac Newton once exclaimed, "The thumb alone is enough to prove that there is a superior power & that is God!"

This is the easiest way of going back to God – from God we have come and to God we must return. This cycle guarantees a safe return journey.

 

This is the P / N PRINCIPLE that we're all supposed to follow.

The human birth is the final birth and, dependent on the virtue of the life, it ends in the Divine, or is reborn again. - SATHYA SAI BABA

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