The significance of offering naivedyam and receiving prasadam.
As a child, I went to temples to enjoy the sumptuous food served at the end of a ritual or religious event. There is a distinct flavor and taste to temple food, one that is difficult to replicate at home or outside. naivedyam is an offering made during worship and then served. The offering is naivedyam and the serving is prasadam. There is divine energy perceived to be present in the serving.
In common parlance, prasadam is synonymous with eatable delicacies. Yet, there is a deeper and expansive spiritual meaning to the term.
Let us explore this a little more.
As discussed before, the cosmos is one universal person (link to spirituality article). The supreme sustains the universe like branches of a tree held by a resolute trunk. Spiritual excellence is to be only a custodian for everything we have or receive in this life. Our goal is to perform righteous actions and accept the outcome. When we are the custodians, there must be an owner. And for a spiritual individual, the owner is the cosmic universal person or the divine.
Any action, material possession then belongs to the divine. As consumers, we first express gratitude to the owner. This is done by either silent contemplation on an all-pervading formless absolute or a personal deity (link to divine or deity).
This gratitude or offering to the divine is naivedyam. From the sanskrit word niveda or nivedya – presenting.
Once offered to the divine, then there is an act of receiving the offering. This receiving is with humility, prasadam is the receipt of the offering.
As you can see, prasadam is not limited to only the food we consume. They expand to the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the house we live in, or any possession. All should be first offered as naivedyam and then consumed as prasadam.
In your daily practice, express gratitude and then consume.
Offering naivedyam and receiving it as prasadam is a recommended practice and falls in the category of ijya (engaging in the mode of worship)