Namaste openedeyes,
I have a Ganesha murti on a small table in my home which I light incense to a few times a week while chanting "om gam ganapataye namaha"
How does one go about offering food to God? Do I leave a bowl of food before an idol like I do with incense? Is there some sort of ritual prayer I should do while performing this act? how long must the food sit there? can or should the food be eaten after? where can I find in scriptures answers to questions like these?
Bhagavad Gita Chaper 9 Sloka 26
patram puspam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanah
SYNONYMS
patram—a leaf; puspam—a flower; phalam—a fruit; toyam—water; yah—whoever; me—unto Me; bhaktya—with devotion; prayacchati—offers; tat—that; aham—I; bhakti-upahrtam—offered in devotion; asnami—accept; prayata-atmanah—of one in pure consciousness.
TRANSLATION
If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit a water, I will accept it.
Mostly in offerings the utensils that one would use should be exclusively for offering. If one offers foods, water or flowers ( will get to this in a moment (timetraveler), keep it simple, a small plate with fruits will be nice.
If you offer simple foods Ganesh Ji likes Laddu and sweets, its custom to eat the prasade after and distribute to others, 5 to 10 mins is enough for the offering, there is no need to make it complicated, whats important in offerings and in reciting the mantra and the thoughts is desire-less meditative devotion.
Its fine to keep with the mantra you chant at the moment when you make offering, and build up more practice as you go along as you naturally learn more, but what you chant is enough, as timetraveler says so nicely and Bhagavad Gita its the devotion that is most important, and listening to bhajans also is a great way to learn and be connected in any activity.
Timetraveler, while I agree with you about flowers and bees, as it is important to be aware of environmental issues. Its always a good idea to grow your own flowers, marigold flowers are very popular, simple to grow, and if done right the amount of flowers will surpass the daily offerings and they grow back very quickly and will attract bees, so the devotional growing will be good for the environment, of course this is optional. Many temples and devotees homes will have flowers in abundance. Its also a good devotional practice to grow Tulsi if one can.
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