Food is the precondition for existence. For all species and the entire living order the required food shall be available in quantity as also in the variety needed. Many of our sacred texts chant in a singular tone “ANNAM PARABRAHMA SWAROOPAM” thereby meaning that food is the very GOD. Even in the west, in other faiths too food is regarded as divine to the extent that one who provides the PROVIDENCE is deemed the very god. So also, in Islam too food is considered highly and shared equally in the cordial manner and mode. On the holy days of Ramzan they share food and serve the same to the needy.
To pursue this vein of thought further, in most of the sacred texts of the ancient Upanishats, there is mention of food which is harped upon in quite a few words. The chants of blessing cite that there shall be food for the individual and his progeny always. Equally they cite in a chorus that food shall ever be plenty for all beings for generations to follow. These are the auspicious hymns and stanzas that we come across in many of the ancient texts and such related lore.
On the day of 15th August 2018, we are celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of ANNAPOORNALYAM, the historic occasion of DIAMOND JUBILEE. AMMA being manifest personified motherhood, is ever concerned about feeding the devotees who seek her blessing affectionately looked after as her endearing children.
AMMA considered the entire order, the whole existence, including the inanimate is covered in her overwhelming, all encompassing, all permeating singular unique motherhood. AMMA considered HER care and concern to feed all the children.
As we see apparently from the portals of ANNAPURNALYAM, the sacred kitchen is always open to feed the hungry and the needy. The fires in its hearth never cease, continually dousing the fire of hunger, soothing the VAISHVANARA AGNI within the humans; even the other species who take this food. AMMA declared that quenching hunger too is truly a sacrificial ritual. Soothing the fire of hunger is verily a sacred ritual and on par with any other sacred sacrifices like other homams and yagnams those are observed with utmost reverence. To be precise, feeding the hungry too is a similar sacred ritual. Nothing less if not higher and shall be deemed as such.
Feeding at Jillellamudi is evidently seen. Yet AMMA’S volition spells the fulfillment of hunger, its mode and design on a macro, mega universal level too. Once AMMA told me in the mid-1980s that there were not many hunger deaths at that point of time. This implies that the nation and the world are touching the point of fulfillment of hunger nearly adequately. I was thrilled to hear these words of AMMA and bowed to her meekly in due reverence. The implied truth is that the kitchen of ANNAPOORNALYAM is only a cue or a pointer for the larger food sufficiency on a macro plane.
To recall in the mid-decade of the first lap of this millennium, there were drought conditions and severe shortage of even cattle fodder. There were media reports of depleting food supplies and shrinking buffer stocks. Even the food supplies at the UN were said to be depleting. Food situation oversell is considered imminent. At Jillellamudi we performed ANNAPOORNA YAGAMS for the benefit of food adequacy, security and for even, seasonal well distributed monsoon rains all over. In the wake of time these efforts were understandably fruitful and the food situation eased all over once again. AMMA being the UNIVERSAL MOTHER, the MOTHER OF ALL for the existence we prayed HER ardently, besought HER blessing which caused the much-needed benefices.
For a moment granting the adequacy of food and ensuring security of food, quality is the other important aspect. We shall all deem food as sacred. The food served at ANNAPOORNA LAYAM is the sacred morsel for those who take the food. Such an outlook brings much needed grace and the required beneficial impact on the person deemed the endearing child of AMMA.
Food becomes sacred when offered to the divine. Every day the first food tray is placed before AMMA for blessing the food. With such offering to the divine, the food served for all becomes sacred. The pollutant, impurities carried if any in the preparation, as also the person of the cook, shall be nullified and the food becomes sacred. Several who ate this food felt the therapeutic and curative properties being remedied of their ills suffered till then.
Another beneficial aspect of this food is that the life force is renewed for the individual when taken with such reverential sanctity. Added spin off benefit for the person who consistently takes this food over a period, he undergoes an inner silent transformation from within almost unawares.
This is the alchemy that works from within the physique and psyche of the individual. Slowly the individual is elevated each as per his won’t and some scale up to the level of consciousness. There is an elevation of the person, overcoming or subduing his negatives and moving in a positive direction for the entire lifetime. He again enters the worldly life duly enhanced and blessed with a better lot. The odds are mitigated. These are the well observed realities. Some recorded too in the annals of ARKAPURI.
We need to appreciate that feeding is only the beginning or the entry point in AMMA’S design of elaborate motherly care. Though the beginning is made with food, eventually the other life’s needs are met. The entire life span is covered and all the existential requirements are catered to in a gradual, unseen mode. Such overall coverage and fulfillment of life are invisible and imperceptible. These happen almost unawares and unknowingly for the subject, who becomes AMMA’S endearing child once he reaches her seeking mother’s blessing.
Sadguru Sivananda Murthy pronounced that the food eaten in the ANNAPOORNA LYAM mitigates the karmic odds, and dilutes the accumulated karmic load of the individual. In each portion of the food taken as many later births are lessened as the number of morsels the food contains. Thus, the food consumed sublimates the person and clears the path for his final destiny (salvation).
This is the true scope and spirit of feeding at ANNAPOORNALYAM. On this glorious occasion of the DIAMOND JUBILEE, we should all commit our mite, dedicate ourselves to this sublime cause for all times to come. We shall take the relentless pledge that we shall work towards serving this sacred morsel unceasingly over the endless wake of time.
Pray AMMA BLESS us bounteously in serving this sacred morsel, participating in this ever-holy ritual with little respite; thus, fulfill ourselves as also others being served in this process.