If we are served charanamrita while we are taking prasad, can we honor caranamrita with contaminated hands?

From Jagad Jivan Govinda Prabhu:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Question from Jagatjeevan Govinda Prabhu If we are served Charanamrut while we are in the middle of honoring Prasadam, can we honor Charanamrut with our Juta hands? Answer This is a matter of individual devotional sensitivity.
In general, Prasad is also pure and Charanamrut is also pure. That’s why it’s not exactly that our hands are contaminated while we are taking Prasadam. Of course, from the biological point of view, when the hand is going inside the mouth for putting the food there, you can say it is contaminated.
Prasadam is pure and Charanamrut is also pure. Both of them are manifestations of Krishna. So as long as we are not touching the spoon from which Charanamrut is being served, the spoon might get contaminated that way.
As long as we are not doing that, taking Charanamrut with the same hand which you are taking Prasadam is nothing objectionable because both are manifestations of Krishna and both are manifestations that are to be honored with the hand and the mouth. So in that sense, because both are forms of Prasad which have a particular method of being honored, that is, with the hand and the mouth, so it is not that one will cause contamination to the other. Certainly while getting Prasadam, we will not touch the Deities.
Although Deity is a manifestation of Krishna and Prasad is also a manifestation of Krishna, but both of them are meant to be served and honored in different ways. Prasad is to be honored by offering prayers and then gratefully being eaten with our hands and the mouth. But the Deity is meant to be offered obeisances, to be meant to be offered service and maybe dressing, bathing.
So different manifestations of Krishna need different kinds of purity for service, for serving them. So Charanamrut and Prasad are both similar and both need to be served in a similar manner. So that’s why there’s no consideration of contamination over here.
And it’s quite standard during festivals, especially after a full day of fast, when devotees take Prasadam at night, say after Narasimha Dashi or Janmashtami, then along with the Prasad often Charanamrut is served. And especially when say thousands of people are there for a big festival and normally in the same plate that Prasadam will be given, in the same plate Charanamrut will be given or Charanamrut will be served to the devotee while letting Prasadam. If all of them have to wash their hands, that is not practically possible also.
At the same time, if some devotee has a special devotional sensitivity by which the devotee feels that no, no, no, this is Charanamrut, it’s actually touched the form of the Lord and it’s very specially pure and that devotee wants to wash his hands before to honour Charanamrut, then we can respect that sentiment. At the same time, we don’t have to universalize or generalize that sentiment because from the philosophical point of view, both are manifestations of Krishna which have to be served, which have to be honoured with the hands and the mouth.