SUBLIMITY OF MAHAPRASADA
Once Narada Muni , the great devotee of Lord Vishnu decided to serve Mata Laxmi . So he went for Vaikuntha and served her very attentively. She became very pleased & wanted to grant a boon .Then Narada Muni revealed his wish to get Maha-prasada remnants of lord Narayan . Hearing his desire Devi got into trouble. Lord Narayana had forbidden her to give his food remnants to anyone so as per Provu’s embargo she could not distribute it to anyone. Devi tried hard to make him understand but Narad was very adamant. He said, “somehow or another you must give me holy prasadam”. At noon while she was serving food to lord Narayan with a very unhappy & morose face Narayan gently asked the reason of her distress. Then Devi revealed her predicament. Provu felt kind of her & cancelled his restriction only for that day. He also mentioned that she had to take the plate of remnants deftly. Devi served prasadam to Narad Muni following her husband’s instruction. Narad muni started dancing & chanting in ecstasy eagerly honored by Lord’s remnants. He with his bina in tow started running all over the universelike a mad man. He ran from planet to planet & finally reached Mount Kailash the abode of Lord Shiva. Seeing such a state of ecstasy, Lord Shiva asked Narod , “What happened to you”. Then Narod Muni checked himself & explained that Narayan’s maha-prasadam had made him out of control. Hearing everything from Narad Lord Shiva became eager to get prasadam. But Narada felt ashamed bcs he had not brought any prasada to share with Lord Shiva. He stood with folded hands before Lord Shiva. While he folded hands, he saw a morsel of Prasad had stuck to his finger nail. He shared the pasada konika into lord Shiva’s mouth. As soon as that konika touched his tounge he also started dancing & chanting in ecstasy. As his ecstasy intensified, his dancing increased & was converted to Tandava . The dance indicating the time of annihilation. Everyone of Triloka became frightened to untimely annihilation. No one was brave enough to stop him except Parvati. The Devas begged Mata Parvati to pacify him to save from untimely annihilation. Mother Parvati humbly approached her beloved husband to stop. When lord became pacified, Devi enquired of him the reason of his ecstasy .Lord shiva then explained her all about Narayana’s mahaprasada. Devi became astonished & asked if there was any mahaprasada left for her. Lord Shiva was helpless bcs he got only one morsel of prasada. Devi burst in anger as she was deprived of Narayana’s mahaprasada. The fire of her anger started to burn the whole universe .The sages and saints understood that everything was going to be finished by her anger. Finally Lord Brahma with all of his demigods rushed to Vaikuntha to news Narayana. Although Narayana knew everything so he forbade Mata Laxmi to distribute his prasada to anyone. Then lord Vishnu riding on the back of Garuda travelled to Kailash. Seeing Vishnu infront of her she offered her obeisance. To pacify Mata Parvati Lord Vishnu committed to give prasada as much as she wanted. Mata Parvati protested to get prasada only for her . She requested to give his Prasad to all of his children even to all living entities. Bcs she could not tolerate the pain of her children that pain she had experienced as being deprived of prasada. Being agreed Lord Narayana smiled & said,” Let it be so.’ He said,‘’my dear Parvati to fulfill your desire I will appear in Nilachal dham & my temple will be famous for distributing my Mahaprasada”. All of my prasada will be offered to you first. Then only will the remnants become mahaprasada. Your temple will be just behind my temple i in the inner courtyard. Lord Shiva’s will stay at a distance and he will have his temple outside the courtyard bcs he neglected to give you prasada. This mahaprasad will be distributed to everyone without consideration .As Jagannath the Lord appeared in Puri. Devi Parbati is there in the name of Bimala. All of Jagannath’s prasada is offered first to Devi Bimala & remnants are distributed as Mahaprasada. In Puri Jagannath’s Mahaprasada is distributed indiscriminately. Sastra says that a Brahmin can take Jagannath’mahaprasada even from the mouth of a dog. It can never be contaminated.
JOY JAGANNATH