Annapurna, food for thought.
 

So last night I had a dream where there was different food dishes being served. Then I saw an entity that was blue standing by the table. I thought it must be Shiva cause it looks like pictures I have seen of Shiva in the past. The entity asked me what parts of Hinduism do I follow. I said I like all of them, which is true. Then the entity told me that he/she really loves my cooking. The entity was very friendly and said lobster sauce is a favorite. The entity said the Christmas meal I will be preparing was popular in the 1950's.

So after I awoke from this dream, I did some research on Shiva and food. I learned that Annapurna is the Goddess of food and cooking. She has the ability to give and endless supply to the world. She is an incarnation of Parvati and is considered the wife of Shiva. She teaches that when food is cooked with holiness, it becomes alchemy...achieving knowledge and enlightenment.

I over eat due to bad habit and stress. I am going to take this dream to heart, seeing as how I never heard of the goddess of food before. I am gonna try looking at food not only as nourishment for my body, but for my spirit and soul as well.

Does anyone here have any associations with Annapurna? Does anyone consume food for spiritual purposes?

Food cooked in a process of meditation or chanting or prayer, imbibes the sattvic or positive vibrations emitting from us. There will be a higher level of prana or chi within them.

This even changes the taste of the food and makes it better as well. The higher prana levels also results in the food having healing abilities.

The prajapita brahmakumaris, a meditation sect devoted to Shiva, gives great importance to this practice of cooking food in remembrance of God. Here's an article on the nature of Shiva, also known as Jehovah, Ahura Mazda or Allah.

The food thus created and eaten, is also considered ideal for meditation, physical health and to create and maintain a positive mindset.

Namaste.

In the Greek tradition, Annapurna is known as the Goddess Demeter - the Goddess of the grain and harvest.

It is a reminder to us to recognise where our food actually comes from, the plenty and abundance of Mother Earth, herself.

It also teaches us not to take it for granted and it is a kind of mindful 'thankfulness' for the bounty of our planet, grown in the womb of Mother Earth, which is also part of Lord Shiva's creation.

People in the United States celebrate this once a year during their Thanksgiving Ceremony. It is a time to be grateful of the means provided to us, which allows us to exist and function as we do, for without it, we would surely perish. Without the grace of Annapurna, we wouldn't exist.

In Hinduism, the tradition is observed on a regular/daily basis as a sacrifice back to the Divine One and to the Goddess, which is less His 'wife' and more His effulgence or manifested energies in the form of Prakriti or 'material emanation' including this Earth and all the food we consume.

Through this practice, we come to understand that the food itself is God, the one who is offering/cooking the food is also God and that to which we offer the food, is of course, God. There is no distinction between the rice being fed into the sacrificial fire, the fire itself and the one who says "swaha" with the offering.

When food is offered to a Deity with the awareness that the Deity is present in the macrocosm and also in the microcosm as the offering and we are just going through the process of acknowledgment, then food is called "Prasad" or "Prasadam" which literally means "grace" or "mercy". For we realise that without God's grace and mercy, there would be no offering and no-one offering it.

Thus, the offering becomes 'sanctified' and takes on the attributes of God, Him/Her/Itself, displaying all the properties which have been aforementioned by Ajay.

I rarely offer food to Shiva, but I do offer water, flowers and leaves occasionally...but after offering my heart, all of those material offerings seem kinda pointless, even though I know they are not...maybe it is time I offered Him these things once more.

patraḿ puṣpaḿ phalaḿ toyaḿ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaḿ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.

Bhagavad Gita 9:26

Om Namah Shivaya

Last night I dreamed of a large pork pie. It was on a high shelf in my aunt's refrigerator. She said to eat anything I wished except the pie as it was for my uncle's supper.
I don't eat meat.

My uncle was a Yorkshire miner and the spitting image of Finlay Currie, the actor who played Abel Magwitch the escaped convict in the 1946 film, Great Expectations. Oddly enough my uncle's surname was Finney, and my aunt was called Connie.
The pork pie is likely tied to the name of Pip, the main character from the old tale.

Today at work I lost my watch. It was a ladies watch, correction, it was my watch and it has a small square blue face. (The strap is broken so it fits neatly into denim hipper pocket). Luckily someone found it and it was returned to me.
Although the event seems to have drained the battery and the watch has now stopped ...

Praise be Shiva and Annapurna

Namaste.

I also see your dream to mean more than the literal interpretation.

In Australia, and I guess in the British Isles (where we came from as convicts), we have a concept called 'rhyming slang' and 'pork pie' is the rhyming slang for 'lie' or 'untruth'.

I bet that your uncle was one who could spin whoppers. :smile:

Maybe Connie was saying to you "don't lie or touch those lies...leave that for your uncle to do".

...and now, the whole of 'Great Expectations' is playing before my mental sphere...I don't know whether to curse you or thank you for that. lol :hug3:

Be well.

Om Namah Shivaya

That's right, porky pies = lies :D

Also today I have been working on an idea on how to map out dreams, based on how the mind makes connections when in the "stream of consciousness" state.

Each connection or link is made into a cell, where each cell, based on the number of connections is then mapped out to a series of identical cells - hitherto, 3 connections make a triangle, 6 connections make a hexagon, or 12 connections making a dodecahedron and so on.

Forming the series of cells into Platonic solids gives them three dimensional shape and space, and liken the sleeping mind to that of a honey hive. Outer space or outside the cell is stimuli input - not part of the dreamer's dream. Therefore theoretically making an indirect connection with the spiritual aspect of our dreaming, whether that be guides, gods, or goddesses.

:smile:

Also, when we are in the sleep/dreaming state, our conscious mind is 'bypassed' and we are more open and receptive to the input from a greater awareness, or our own subconscious mind - take your pick.

This input or message often comes to us encrypted, so upon remembrance, it is up to us to try and make some 'sense' of it according to what resonates with our being/awareness whilst in the conscious state and we know we have 'hit upon it' when the whole being gets involved and it becomes like a 'eureka' moment.

There are also others who are totally 'in tune' with these messages and can immediately see/interpret them as what they mean to both ourselves and to others and I have just given you an example of this.

Thanks for the links and your knowledge on the subject. I have been thinking about this on and off today. I am going to try to cook a meal tomorrow in this new way and see what happens.

I have never thought to offer food in to a "God" or of the sorts. In the dream, that is what was going on though. I grow a lot of my own food. Lots of fruits, veggies and nuts. I can a lot of foods from that.

This is a whole new concept to me, to feed my spirit via physical food. I think that looking at food in this new way will allow me to associate food with positive energy and when I do feel stressed, I will not want to turn to food to sooth the stress.

I found a prayer that is said in Hinduism, one that is said before eating. I have it written down and hung on my fridge. I plan to incorporate that into my new actions.

Thinking in terms of Platonic solids, three dimensional shapes, the link between the dreamer and the "input message" or "external stimuli" is likely to be indirect. Insomuch the connection from one dream image to the other may be on opposite sides of the cell. This would cause the communication connection to seem cryptic because of the sides in between.

I surmise that many people believe these dream messages to be straight from the horses mouth and so take them on faith. I wish for myself to find more empirical evidence to allow my own beliefs open reign.

If input stimuli is analogous to a grouping of bees depositing nectar into the honey cells that make up our dream thoughts, then perhaps those cells can contain other matter such as molasses, golden syrup ... etc, and on occasion thick dark treacle.