Krishna as Damodara
Sri Krishna Prasadam is very famous in the temples of Lord Krishna like Puri Jagannath, Guruvayur and Udupi, and it is distributed to the devotees on a daily basis. Apart from daily offering of food to the devotees, the delicious Sri Krishna Prasadam is also served to the devotees, which would normally consist of Butter made snacks and sweet items. Since these items are presented before the deity of Lord Krishna during the time of Sri Krishna Puja, devotees used to willing eat the Prasad items by considering that the Holy Prasad items are directly offered by Lord Krishna itself.
In Udupi Sri Krishna Temple which is located in Karnataka, food offering is made to the devotees on a daily basis. Apart from the normal course of food, the delicious Holy Prasad items would also be offered to the devotees during the times of auspicious festival days, and those who have those wonderful Prasad items would get delighted and they would also eagerly converse about their golden opportunity in tasting the Krishna Prasadam along with their friends and relatives.
In Guru Raghavendra Swamy Mutt at Mantralayam, Sri Krishna Jayanti festival would be grandly celebrated, and the tasty Parimala Prasad items would be offered before the picture and idol of Lord Krishna, and after the performance of puja, a piece of Parimala Prasad would be offered to the devotees and they would eagerly taste the delicious sweet item by considering it to be the great Sri Krishna Prasadam. Likewise in various Mutts at Udupi, special ghee and butter items would be prepared during the auspicious Sri Krishna Jayanti Festival day and it would be distributed to the devotees.
If we read the life history of the staunch devotees of Krishna, we could know how the great Lord has shown mercy on them. Once when an old lady wilfully bought some quantity of flattened rice, also known as Aval, from her home, and while she was on her way to the famous Guruvayur Temple, Lord Krishna had appeared in the form of a small boy, wearing nice costumes, and asked her to give some portion of flattened rice to him. On seeing the bright face of the boy, the old lady had delightfully given the entire quantity of flattened rice to him. Lord Krishna who was in the form of a small boy, had eaten the entire quantity of food with great joy, and he also smiled at her.
After the old lady reached the temple of Guruvayur, she was able to see some portion of the flattened rice which was found on the mouth of the Krishna deity. She shed joyful tears, and with great happiness, she shared her divine experience with the temple priest and with other devotees. As per the sayings of Lord Krishna in his Bhagavat Gita Teachings, “Oh my dear Arjuna, those who offer me with great devotion, even a small bit of sugar, would taste me a lot, similar to the divine Amirtham, but those who offer me a wide range of sweets and savories just for name sake, would not impress me, and I would never consider those things as a Prasad item”.
The devotees of Lord Krishna would be very much delighted, if he really appears in the form of child Krishna, and if he eat the Krishna Prasad items at our homes during his birthday. Hence let us try to prepare delicious sweet and snacks items made out of butter, and let us make a humble call to him, in order to accept our offering on his birthday and also on Saturdays, since Saturdays are considered as auspicious days for worshipping and offering our Prasad items to Lord Krishna.
“JAI SRI KRISHNA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR