Temple Prasadam Stalls.. The temple Prasad items is as famous as consuming the holy Gangajal water itself! Though fasting is commonly observed by Hindus on certain auspicious festival days, yet, the consumption of Prasad items is given prime importance, by considering it to be a divine will! We can find Prasad stalls in most of the popular temples, and some stalls would be located inside the temple premises, whereas some of them would be situated outside or nearby the temples, and these stalls charge money for the Prasad items, and it is not offered at free of charge.
In most of the big temples, they used to provide wholesome free food to the devotees, especially during noon time, and apart from food, in some Temples, curd rice and Sambar rice would also be distributed to the devotees at free of cost, and this noble task would be undertaken either by the temple management, or else it would be undertaken by the devotees themselves by paying a prescribed sum of money in the temple office. In most of the temple Prasadam stalls, the items would consist of Tamarind rice, curd rice, Adirasam, Murukku, Thattai, Laddus, Panchamirtham and Halwa.
In general, the prasadam stall staffs wouldn’t insist us to buy the prasadam. Whoever is interested could buy it. Some devotees even without having the interest to buy would buy the Prasad items just for name sake, since they would feel that some divinity would also enter into their stomach, once if they consume the Prasad items. Most of the temple Prasad items are being prepared in hygienic condition only, however we should not preserve it in our refrigerators for a long period, since there are chances of getting spoiled!
We can also buy temple Prasad items, in order to help the staffs. But Prasad items must be prepared not only for profit making, but it must be prepared with bhakti, service motive and with love and affection. Some people used to say, once if we consume temple prasadam, all of our sins and diseases would run away! But it is not like that, since it is not easy to cure the diseases just like that, and our sins also cannot be washed out completely, just by consuming the Prasad items itself, since it requires lot of time, patience Divine help and of course, we must realise, that everything happens in our life based on our Karmic deeds, fate and divine will only!
“OM SARAVANA BHAVA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR