64. Ingredients, Cooking & Offering of Bhoga to Lord Jagannath

Ingredients, Cooking & Offering of Bhoga to Lord Jagannath:

Ingredients:

"The standard for ingredients has remained constant for 2000 years: Ingredients must be local, organic, and native to the area. Widely available "new-world" ingredients such as chillies, onion, garlic, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, papaya, cauliflowers are not used. But variety is not a problem; locally available are many types of beans, tubers, squashes, melons, leafy greens. Local spices include mace, cumin, fennel, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, mustard seed, and black cumin." (BTG, December 1994) 

The process of cooking:

Formerly, it was the custom of brahmanas to worship Lord Vishnu at home and cook food in new pots. This system is still going on in Jagannatha Puri. The foodstuffs would be cooked in earthen pots, all fresh and new, and after cooking the pots would be thrown away.

Lord Jagannath's bhoga is tantric in nature and unique in character. 9 clay pots full of bhoga are cooked simultaneously upon one oven with 9 burners representing 9 devatas: Lakshmi, Narayana and Agnideva in the center surrounded by Vishnu, Siva, Indra, Brahma, Surya and Candra.

Offering:

Before the cooking gets completed, a priest (pujä-panda) at the altar cleanses the area in front of the deities with water. He then draws 7 mystic mandalas on the floor with rice flour, marking a spot for each deity's offering. When the offerings arrive from the kitchen, they are placed upon the appointed areas, then offered with sacred mantras.

Every pot of bhoga that has been prepared is placed before Lord Jagannath, unlike most temples in India, where only small portions of the entire meal are offered before the deities.

The deities' offerings are prepared in a clean atmosphere. No dogs, cats, or animals are allowed near the cooking area.

After the food is offered to the deities on the main altar, a portion of prasad is taken to the nearby Bimala temple (still within the main compound) and offered to the goddess Bimala. Residents of Puri believe that only after the foodstuff is offered to Bimala-devi does it become maha-prasada, sanctified food in the form of mercy for the devotees.

Locals believe and the Brhad Bhagavatam (2.1.161) confirms that the goddess Lakshmi personally cooks for Sri Jagannatha deva (tasyännam pacitam laksmya).

During Ratha-yatra, Jagannath maha-prasadam is cooked in the Gundica temple.

Pilgrims visiting Puri are also anxious to honor the Lord's prasadam, foodstuffs offered to the deities.

Attraction for remnants of the Lord's food is not mundane. The Bhagavad-gită (3.13) clearly asserts:

yajña-sistasinaḥ santo,

mucyante sarva-kilbisaiḥ

bhunjate te tv agham papa,

ye pacanty atma-käranät

"The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin."