• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

The Unadvertised Feeding of Millions

Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Temples (and gurdwaras) have a hidden secret ... feeding people. Here's one example from India.

The temple kitchen never sleeps

Almost all larger temples feed people, and its not just devotees, but anyone who happens to come by. It's a long standing dharmic tradition, and I often ponder how much food eaten in India comes from temple kitchens. In the example above its 35 000 people on festival days, and an average of 2000 regularly.

The temple I go to feeds about 600 once a week, more on festivals. The two other larger temples here feed another 1000 or so. The Sai Center here makes sandwiches and takes them to the streets to the areas where homeless people are. The large Gurdwaras have daily langar.

Not many non-Hindus even know about it.
 
LuisDantas

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Thanks for posting. What is the typical origin of the food? Is it provided by the temple community members?
 
Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
LuisDantas said:
Thanks for posting. What is the typical origin of the food? Is it provided by the temple community members?
Click to expand...
Generally sponsors pay a lump sum, and then temple volunteers go retrieve it from stores, or in the case of larger temples, direct from source, or via wholesale. We use wholesale here in Canada even. Rarely is anyone paid. Some temples also will use the temple funds if there are no sponsors. It's not really a 'free' service in that sense.
 
Aupmanyav

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Vinayaka, how can otherwise thousands of people can be fed? :)
There is no particular community at temples or gurudwaras. Whatever the visitors or devotees donate. Devotees of large temples or gurudwaras can be from across the globe. Donations are generally more than enough to take care of the expenses. In large temples, just one or two sponsors would not suffice. This is possible only at smaller temples and gurudwaras.
 
Last edited:
LuisDantas

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Keeping in mind that I understand that there are probably many significant exceptions (India is huge and there are probably many peculiar situations there)...

I get the sense that it is a form of community service, which provides people in dire need with the means to survive while other people who might have the food or money to donate have the opportunity to deliver those. The Temple and its people are a service provider of sorts connecting those two groups.

In a way it is alternative to government social services, or the UK's food banks, maintained by Hindu and Sikh Temples with or without some degree of support from government authorities. Of course, the OP made it clear that there are significant differences; the kitchens are open to people who are not necessarily in need, and of course there is ample opportunity to participate in the (other) religious services as well.

How accurate would this perception of mine be?
 
Nyingjé Tso

Nyingjé Tso

Tänpa Yungdrung zhab pä tän gyur jig
Vanakkam

Here in the temple in Paris it's a bit of devotees bringing huge plates of home cooked food and volounteers in the temples kitchen cooking huge plates of food directly on the spot.

Everyone is fed, hindu or non hindu. You take your plate, sit down on the floor Somewhere and just enjoy the meal with everyone. It's really exactly like a big family meal...

Then you're offered another plate. Out of politeness, you accept and eat some more.

Then hindu grandma brings you TWO MORE FULL PLATES for your wife/husband/children/mother/father/brother/your cat/any living being in your vicinity... Look you have a hindu grandma now, accept it, just take the food :D

Anyone should really experience hindu prasad once in their life... Religious or not. Just for the delicious food and the socialness of it.
 
Jainarayan

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
Vinayaka said:
I'm always amazed at the size of the pots.
Click to expand...

I can imagine. I worked in a hospital kitchen when I was in high school. We had floor kettles that were bolted to the floor, had their own plumbing and gas lines. They were the size of therapeutic ice bath tubs. The cooks used paddles to stir.
 
Jainarayan

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
Food served at our temple is cooked by the canteen kitchen. The quantities must be wholesale, probably bought with a combination of donations and temple funds, ultimately donated anyway. There are signs saying not to bring food from home for prasad, but rather, donate towards the food. That’s not unreasonable... the temple can guarantee their kitchen is vegetarian and sattvic. I’ve wanted to make huge trays of vegetarian lasagna (mine is veg. anyway), but I don’t keep a vegetarian kitchen.
 
Aupmanyav

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
When one visits a temple or gurudwara, it is considered a must to partake from the God's kitchen/Langar/Bhandara (open store room).

You are correct, Luis. Government does not contribute (however, the management of many Hindu temples has been taken over by Government because of corruption charges against the former managers, or because the Government wanted to control the sizable donation money) but they have continued the tradition.

"As per legend, .. Lord Kubera (God of Money) credited money to Srinivasa (called Lord Venkateswara in Tirupati, a form of the god Vishnu) for his marriage with Padmavathi. Srinivasa sought a loan of 11.4 million (11,400,000) coins of gold from Kubera and had Viswakarma, the divine architect, create heavenly surroundings in the Seshadri hills. .. In remembrance of this, devotees go to Tirupati to donate money in Venkateswara's hundi (donation pot) so that he can pay it back to Kubera. The hundi collections go as high as 22.5 million INR a day.
Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala - Wikipedia

The whole legend is a bit complicated for Western ears, but if you want, I can recount it. :)
 
Last edited:
atanu

atanu

Member
Premium Member
Whenever I go to Sri Ramanasramam, I ask permission to partake in the bhagawan’s ‘bhog’. In Ramanasramam, food is first served to homeless sadhus in an open space and then to house guests in the dining hall.

It is said that in very early days, when the ashrama was small, Shri Ramana and few associates used to get up at 2 AM to cut vegetables and cook, before sitting for puja and meditation. One day, it seems, a large group of ladies came in to offer their services to cook food for devotees and visitors, whose numbers were increasing day by day. Shri Ramana told his associate “Our karma (duty) of cooking is over. Come let us meditate.”

Cooking in temples and ashramas is a good karma yog. :)
 
Last edited:
SomeRandom

SomeRandom

Still learning to be wise
Staff member
Premium Member
Yes, to feed the hungry and homeless is the duty of human beings. We always would donate what we could to temple. And failing that, would at least donate to any random homeless shelter we could.
It’s always pretty integral when festivals crop up. My mother would especially be proud whenever she was able to cook in her local temple during a holy festival.
 
Jainarayan

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
Aupmanyav said:
n remembrance of this, devotees go to Tirupati to donate money in Venkateswara's hundi (donation pot) so that he can pay it back to Kubera.
Click to expand...

We have hundi boxes all over the temple. I suppose most or all south style Vishnu temples have them.
 
Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Jainarayan said:
We have hundi boxes all over the temple. I suppose most or all south style Vishnu temples have them.
Click to expand...
IN TN and elsewhere, they're huge metal cauldron things. I have no idea how the temple authorities get them out of there to count if they're allowed to get full. Either there's an opening on the bottom, or they bring in a forklift.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top