Offering of tea ?

[McKitty]

Hello everyone ! I hope you are doing well !
(excuse me in advance if i make typing errors, i m on a qwerty computer and it s horrible to type D

I searched on googgle whether or not it was appropriate to offer tea to the deitites (In my case, Durga Maa and Mahesh)

I recently discovered green tea, and it s proprieties on the human body, it s a very blessed drink for the health and many of the kind are not excitants like tea. I ve been drinking some Houji cha recently and I wondered if it was okay to offer the green tea to Lord Shiva before drinking it ?

Is there any mention or use of this drink in scriptures and ceremonies for exemple ?

Thank you very much!

Aum Namah Shivaya

[Sahasranama]

Tea is not offered to deities in Hinduism. You can drink it if you want, but because it has caffeine it should be avoided on any fasting day or when you are eating sattvik.

Lukewarm water with camphor and cardemon or cloves or tulasi leaves can be offered in pujas.

[Believer]

Namaste,

Off topic, but Houji Cha is made from roasted green tea. Would roasting not destroy the anti-oxidants that the green tea is famous for?

Pranam.

[Sahasranama]

Namaste,

Off topic, but Houji Cha is made from roasted green tea. Would roasting not destroy the anti-oxidants that the green tea is famous for?

Pranam.

Yes, but only partially and another healthy compound is formed from the roasting. I don't know the name right now, but you could google it.

[McKitty]

Vanakkam,

Sahasranama beat me on this one

Thank you for your answer, I was wondering because there are so many types of tea, so many techniques to alter or prepare it, I was surprised to discover some kind of tea unknown to me that nearly wasn't containing caffeine at all.

I saw on a hindu website about MahaShivatri that, if a devotee have not ovserved nirahar vrat, they could eat fruits and drink tea ! Is it okay for a devotee observing MahaShivatri to drink tea, even if it contain caffeine ?


Aum Namah Shivaya

[Believer]

Namaste,

Herbal teas are teas in name only. They are dried blossoms, berries or rinds boiled in water and are naturally caffeine free.

http://www.teavana.com/loose-leaf-te...eine-free-teas
http://www.teaforte.com/store/gourme...eine-free-tea/
http://www.celestialseasonings.com/p.../caffeine-free

Sahas, are these fake teas permissible during holy days, or otherwise? Do they in any way stimulate our senses, and are thus undesirable?

Pranam.

[Sahasranama]

Sahas, are these fake teas permissible during holy days, or otherwise? Do they in any way stimulate our senses, and are thus undesirable?

There are no strict rules about these things, since tea was brought from China to India, even for real tea there is no rule in the shastra. It is possible to write entire cookbooks with foods that can be eaten during a fast and have a party with allowed ingredients like a lot of the hare krishna people do. In my opinion, this is contrary to the spirit of fasting. It's best to keep things simple, have some water, some fruit or some milk/yoghurt if you have to eat something, but not too much. The point of fasting is to not indulge the senses for a short period of time.

[Amrut]

Tea is offered in almost all ashrams. Some Yogis prefer not to drink tea at all.

It is left to you if you want to observe fast without water, only water, only fruits, tea, fruits and milk, or just eating one time i.e. only lunch no dinner.

It is said, eating too much, not eating anything harms more than helping

So fasting is a subjective matter and it depends upon how much time you can stay without food getting disturbed in meditation or chanting, else you will remember food more than Shiva. the more you try to avoid it and forget hunger, the more you will feel hunger. So try and increase fasting but not too much.

I have not seen anyone offering tea to God, though people simply offer all food cooked in ashram and infact it's even better to cook food by chanting god's name, so everything is surrendered to God in advance

Does this mean that you do not need to surrender food before eating. It's always good practice to offer any food even road side food.

Don't get greedy, you are now out of your teens

[Amrut]

oh I forgot to answer about green tea.

Green tea is not normal tea. It has it's own benefits. it even does not taste like normal tea. I have a mixture of green tea and tulsi and even just tulsi by a company called Organic India. I take it with water and sugar, but no milk.

Works well for me.

Aum