Namya's Prasad

One of the folk tales that my grandmother used to tell me was about a Marathi saint called Namdev from Pandharpur. His father was an ardent devotee of Vitthal. Every morning, after the Pooja, he would put Panchamrut Prasad (a mixture of milk, ghee, curd, honey and jaggery) for the deity. Once the Prasad was offered to the god, the father would eat it as a blessing. Young Namdev however, was under an impression that the god himself eats the Prasad every day. To his point, he had always seen the filled bowl of Prasad going in the prayer room and an empty bowl coming out.

Once the father had to go out of town for some work. “Namya”, he said, “tomorrow you will perform Pooja and offer Prasad to Vitthal.” Namya was excited about this. He wanted to meet Vitthal and see him eat the Prasad. He got up early, took bath at the banks of Chandrabhaga and came home to prepare the Panchamrut Prasad. Well versed with all the rituals, he performed the Pooja like a pro. Then came the time of offering Prasad. Namya made a mandal (circle) of holy water on the floor and put the bowl of Prasad inside it. Then he sprinkled holy water around the Prasad and offered it to the god. He was eagerly waiting for Vitthal to come out of the conical headgear wearing, akimbo posed, black colored statue and accept his offerings. Hours passed, but the god still did not come and eat the Prasad. Disheartened, Namya’s innocence was questioning his deeds because of which he thought the god is not accepting Prasad. At that age and stage of belief, crying was inevitable for him. He just wanted to know why the god was being unfair to him. Why would the god accept Prasad from his father and not from Namya?

Distressed by his curiosity, Namdev decided to take an oath. He told Vitthal in a childish, audacious way - “Unless you appear before me and either have the Prasad or tell me the reason why you are not accepting it, I will sit here before your statue and sacrifice food and water.” The father returned in the evening to see Namya sleeping in the prayer room, marks of soiled tears on his flat cheeks. Listening to his story, the father’s heart churned. “Arey vedya, I am the one who eats the Prasad every day after the offering, not Vitthal”, he said. But Namya was in a different zone altogether. Either his father was telling the truth or he was just lying to pacify him. In both conditions, he had taken an oath. And as said in good old days, you can give away your life but can’t go back on an oath. Now this was an actual Dharma-Sankat (catch-22 situation) for the father-son duo. As the legend goes, Vitthal gave in to the prayers of the innocent kid and appeared to accept the Prasad. I always thought Namya was a fool. Why was he so adamant on seeing Vitthal have the Prasad?

I got reminded of this story a few days back when I started the annual ritual of keeping a bowl filled with water in my balcony for the birds. I could see the bowl empty when I came back home in the evening. One day, just after I kept the bowl, I realized that some birds have arrived in the balcony. I did not want them to fly away. So I just peeped through the curtains. It was a bunch of pigeons. Thirsty, they covered the bowl from all the sides and started gulping the water through their beaks. Seeing that was an immensely satisfying experience for me. I chose not to take a picture because it would have diverted my mind and I would have ruined my experience of that satisfaction. It was my Namya’s Prasad being accepted as an offering by the Vitthal. It seems, Namya was not indeed a fool. He was more aware about this satisfaction that I had experienced.

Now, why this story? The point is, it is getting hot every day. Please start putting bowls of water in your balconies or on roofs for birds. Practice your Namya’s Prasad and you might get lucky to experience the same satisfaction one of these days.

-Anurag