FAQ on Prasadam

In Bhagavad-gétä, Kåñëa says yäta-yämaà or food cooked three hours before being eaten is tämasa-priyam – dear to the one in the mode of ignorance. Is it applicable for prasädam?

Çréla Prabhupäda explains: Any food prepared by the injunctions of the scripture and offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be taken even if prepared long, long ago, because such food is transcendental. [BG: 17.10 Purport]

The consideration of spoiling foodstuff after 3 hours, that is ordinary or it is so for persons who are not advanced in accepting Kåñëa Prasäda as transcendental, just like Ragunatha Goswami: he was collecting rejected rice from the cooking of Lord Jagannatha and he was eating only that. So this is a higher stage, so for the time being you should know that Kåñëa Prasäda is never contaminated by any material source. [Letter to: Caturbhuja, Mayapur, February 28, 1972]

Therefore to make food antiseptic, eatable and palatable for all persons, one should offer food to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. [BG: 17.10 Purport]

Ideally one should eat food that is (a) cooked by devotees (b) offered to the Lord by devotees (c) served by devotees. But, sometimes in the course of our duties, we may be compelled to eat food cooked by non-devotees (in restaurant or in the house of relatives or while travelling).

If we take food from the houses of others, such as karmés, we shall have to share the qualities of those from whom we take alms. Therefore Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu took prasädam in the houses of Vaiñëavas. This is the general process. The members of the Kåñëa consciousness movement are advised not to take food from anywhere but a Vaiñëava’s or brähmaëa’s house where Deity worship is performed. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu has said, viñayéra anna khäile duñöa haya mana: [Cc. Antya 6.278] if a devotee takes alms or food from the house of a karmé who is simply interested in money, his mind will become unclean. [CC Antya 3.101 Purport]

Çréla Prabhupäda resolves this issue as follows:

Sometimes preachers in the Kåñëa consciousness movement have to accept food in a home where the householder is an avaiñëava; however, if this food is offered to the Deity, it can be taken. Ordinary food cooked by an avaiñëava should not be accepted by a Vaiñëava. [Çré Caitanya-caritämåta Madhya-lélä 9.53 Purport]

Çréla Prabhupäda explains the principle of dravyamülyena çuddhati: foodstuff when paid form, becomes purified in the following letter.

The first thing is that in the meeting of Dr. Spock, you should eat there. But you simply eat vegetarian dishes, like fruits, nuts, boiled potato, biscuit, milk, etc., and remembering Krishna. As you will pay for the dinner, for the fooding, you can offer them to Krishna within your mind, then eat them as Krishna Prasadam. Any foodstuff when it is paid for, it becomes purified. There is a verse in Vedic literature, Drabyamulyena Suddhati. The source of receipt of the thing, may be not very good, but if one pays for it, it becomes purified. So, vegetable diet when it is paid for, you can offer it in your mind to Krishna and take it. [Letter to: Brahmananda, Seattle, 6 October, 1968]

Can we eat food offered to the demigods? The answer is NO.

Actually a Vaiñëava is not allowed to take any food offered to the demigods. A Vaiñëava is always fixed in accepting prasäda offered to Lord Viñëu. [SB 6.18.49 Purport]

We observe the system followed in Jagannatha Puri. First the foodstuff is offered to Lord Jagannatha and then His prasäd is offered to the different demigods; then we may take such remainders as prasadam. This is the correct procedure. [Letter to: Upendra, Bombay, November 21, 1970]

So far attending pujas at the houses of the Hindus there we can go and hold our kirtana but we should not take prasädam there. We can accept raw materials and take them to our temple but we should not accept any prasädam prepared by them. However, if they insist then we can take fruits and milk and offer them to Krishna. [Letter to: Surasrestha, Los Angeles, June 14, 1972]

So our Kåñëa consciousness movement is that you take only kåñëa-prasädam, that's all. You save yourself. [Lecture: SB 2.3.19 Los Angeles, June 14, 1972]

If prasäda is offered to karmis and they leave it behind, can devotees honor the left overs?

Çréla Prabhupäda advises:

You may not be so advanced that you will take the karmi remnants as prasäda  The karmis should not be given so much that there is waste. You can give them a little, and then if they like you can give them more. This system should be introduced everywhere. I have seen myself that so much prasada is being left. This is not good. [Letter to: Vedavyasa, Detroit, August 04, 1975]

Remnants of food may be eaten only when they are part of a meal that was first offered to the Supreme Lord or first eaten by saintly persons, especially the spiritual master. Otherwise the remnants of food are considered to be in the mode of darkness, and they increase infection or disease. Such foodstuffs, although very palatable to persons in the mode of darkness, are neither liked nor even touched by those in the mode of goodness. [BG 17.8–10 Purport]

The remnants of food left by a pure Vaiñëava are called mahä-mahä-prasädam. This is completely spiritual and is identified with Lord Viñëu. Such remnants are not ordinary. The spiritual master is to be considered on the stage of paramahaàsa and beyond the jurisdiction of the varëäçrama institution. The remnants of food left by the spiritual master and similar paramahaàsas, or pure Vaiñëavas, are purifying. When an ordinary person touches such prasädam, his mind is purified, and his mind is raised to the status of a pure brähmaëa. [Madhya 3.96]