Prasadam is food that has first been offered to God. Meaning “the Lord’s mercy”, prasadam is prepared specifically for God and offered to His deity, and is thus considered sacred.
The tongue is very difficult to satisfy since it is always craving different kinds of foods. Due to this desire, we end up eating things that we shouldn’t. In acquiring such food, we go to great lengths such as killing innocent animals. We become bound up in the material world through our eating and thus have to suffer the results through the laws of karma.
Prasadam is considered “karma-free” food since it is sanctified by God. Prasadam is prepared and offered to satisfy God and not to satisfy our senses. We purify ourselves by remembering that God supplies us everything and that we should aim to please Him instead of ourselves. In preparing and eating prasadam, we thank God for everything He has done for us and we pray that we will always remember Him.
In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna:
“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.”
When we prepare and offer food specifically for God, He eats the food but through His mercy he leaves the remnants for us.
Due to its auspicious nature, prasadam should be distributed to as many people as possible. This sanctified food ignites a spiritual spark in the soul which will eventually reawakens one’s dormant love for God. Vedic literature references many historical incidents where people have had the good fortune of partaking of prasadam, sometimes even by accident, and have had their lives made perfect as a result. It is believed that anyone who regularly partakes of it, will at the very least return as a human being in their next life.