Naivedyam means food offered to a
Hindu deity as part of a worship ritual, before eating it. As such, tasting during preparation or eating the food before offering it to God is strictly forbidden. The food is first placed before a deity and specific prayers are offered with accompanying rituals. Afterwards, the food is considered as having been Blessed by God, and has officially become the sanctified प्रसाद (
prasāda).
Prasāda is to be consumed by attendees as a Holy offering. The offerings may include cooked food,
sugarcane, or
fruits. Vegetarian food is usually offered and later distributed to the devotees who are present in the
temple. Non-vegetarian is prohibited in most of the temples, but there is evidence for non-vegetarian food – offerings to Goddess
Kali include animals such as
goats or
roosters, which are slaughtered in the temple precincts and offered. Many Hindus offer cooked food or some fruits to a picture or
idol of a deity before they eat it.
However, one needs to differentiate Naivedya from '
Prasad'. Prasad is what one gets from God. The meaning of these words, respectively, is usually attributed to food that is first offered to God (Naivedya), and ultimately received from God (prasad).
en.wikipedia.org
There is nothing called maha Naivedyam, It is a term coined in South India just to say that it is a Grand Dinner. Just as there are differences between banquets and dinners. banquets are a little bit more elaborate than dinner, we have Naivedyam and Maha Neivedyam.
This may not fit this section, but that is the fact of life.
Slightly on a worldly (or cynical) note when we wanted the devotees to contribute more to the temple we would arrange a Maha Neivedyam, as opposed to regular Neivedyam.
Just as Geru, Gurudev, Sri Gurudev, Sri Sri Sri Gurudev, 108 Sri Gurudev is all overkill of the respectful word Guru.
In the end what difference does it make? God is not waiting for the food we offer Him, and if he did start eating it I doubt we will not offer it It is basically for our consumption.
Ravi Shankar explains the decision of an additional honorific through a
blog post, “that evening, I called our key organisers to discuss changing my name and that of the organisation. This was a grave matter and everybody had something to say. I easily dropped the ‘Pandit’ from my name. A colleague who had been with me at Maharishi’s came up with the idea of Sri Sri. Everybody agreed that one Sri is very common, generic and confusing. My opinion on the matter was irrelevant in this animated discussion. I was just a silent witness. And so, I was rechristened at Waldorf.”
On his birthday, know Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the ‘unusual holy man’ of India and the man behind recent controversies.
www.thequint.com