Fruit for the Deities
Hare Krsna
Responding to the story of the "crack man" who gave bananas in exchange for "perfection of yoga", the trick is to give the bannanas to the deities. My husband says that this way, the person giving gets the most benefit. And as we all know, there are a lot of people out there who really need the benefit!
One day we had set up a book table in the main street of Sydney city and we were trying to stop people and get them to buy books. We were having a good day, and so enthusiastic for people to buy books, so when one boy stopped and sounded really interested, but had no money, I was anxious to find a way to give him a book. so I noticed he had a whole bag of bhoga, and I said "you can give anything, any donation", and he said, "oh you can have my food if you like". So I looked inside his shopping bag, and he had mostly ready made cassorole sauces (eg just add meat!), but he had a few pieces of fruit too, so I said "I'll take your fruit!" and he said "yeah ok, I dont want that anyway".
So I gave him a Dharma and he was really happy (I think he was a bit of an eccentric street guy).
Anyway, so my husband told me how he will get more benefit if we give them to the deities rather than eat them, so he personally put them in the front of the altar a couple of mornings later. For some reason, the pujari chose to pick them up, later that day, and rather than put them in the kitchen, he put the apple and mandarin right at our big Gopinatha deities feet! Our dieties in Sydney temple, Sri Sri Radha- Gopinatha, rarely have fruit at their feet, and they are only 2 feet tall, so this was really different and special. When I arrived that night at the temple, I saw so much reciprocation from Krsna for our efforts on sankirtan
SANKIRTAN ki JAI!
Krsna Rupa Devi Dasi
