If we are served more prasad than what we can eat, can we throw it away?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you.
If we are served more Prasad than what we can eat, can we throw it away? Answer, in the Mahabharata, Krishna tells Arjuna, there is not a rule for everything. So this is something which we have to decide individually. In principle, no devotee would like to throw away Prasad.
Prasad is Krishna’s manifestation in his very merciful and accessible and appealing form and we would like to honour it. But if there is too much Prasad being served, then we will have to decide. Some devotees may feel, oh, this is Prasad, how can I waste it? Better let me eat it.
And other devotees may feel that actually, yes, I cannot waste Prasad. But then, I have a material body. If I overeat, it may spoil my health or even if it doesn’t spoil my health, that overeating will make me lethargic.
It may make me sleep more. So I will end up wasting my time. I will waste the time which I could have used in Krishna’s service, the digestive energy, the energy which I could have used for other things, that will go in digesting unnecessary food.
So a devotee can have a different attitude and both attitudes are perfectly okay. Now, in some ways, actually having to throw away Prasad, if we do that, then it creates a samskara that can work positively or negatively. One negative samskara is that we become nonchalant and we start thinking, oh, Prasad, sometimes it can be thrown away.
What’s the big deal about it? Or otherwise, if we have a little more devotional conscience, then we will feel the pinch, you know. I mean, throwing away Prasad and after that we’ll be more careful about not accepting too much Prasad. Sometimes we become too excited on seeing some item and we feel, oh, I want to eat this more and I want to take more and more and afterwards we find we can’t eat it.
So then we will not succumb to the greed like that. And also sometimes, some other devotees may serve us a lot of Prasad and devotees are expressing their love. Bhumte bhojate chaiva.
Giving Prasad and accepting Prasad is a way of reciprocating love with each other. So we may feel that if somebody is giving Prasad and is insisting, how can I say no? Yes, that is true. That accepting Prasad is a way of reciprocating affection.
But that is not the only way of reciprocating affection. That is, ghuiyam akhyati puchchati also. So we can, if we feel that the Prasad is too much, it’s very sweetly and politely say no.
This is Prabhu or Mataji. No, your heart is bigger than my stomach. Your desire to serve is far greater than my capacity to reciprocate.
So I accept your affection, but please, I cannot take this Prasad. If we tell it politely, devotees will understand. And these sort of polite exchanges can also become ways in which we reciprocate affection with devotees.
So the important point is, always prevention is better than cure. So as much as possible, we can take Prasad in moderate quantities. And if we want more, we can take more helpings.
And we can tell the devotees who are serving also, please, I take less. And if I want, I’ll take more again. And that way we can avoid having to throw away Prasad.
So best is that we avoid taking extra Prasad only. And if we take extra, then we can decide whether I have to throw it away or I take it in. And the important thing is that whichever way we do it, we let the samskara go in.
If we take it in, and then we become lethargic and oversleep, we remind ourselves, this is what happened because of my laxity in overeating. Or if we throw away the Prasad, then also we remember, this is what I had to do. Throw away merciful manifestation of Krishna because of my laxity in taking too much.
Either way, we learn from it and we prevent its recurrence afterwards. Thank you.