Offerings

[BlueSky]

This passage from the Gita posted on another thread inspired me to ask others ways in which they make offerings to the divine.
For example, when you sit down to eat how do you make an offering acknowledging the divine and your appreciation. I usually just acknowledge such but today I tried actually offering the first bites by putting it aside.
Just curious. Thanks! The first response will be offered to the divine.
"Whoever offers me with devotion and a pure mind, a leaf, a flower, a fruit
or a little water – I accept.
Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest in
sacrifice, whatever thou givest, whatever thou practisest as austerity, O
Arjuna, do it as an offering unto me."

[BlueSky]

I guess it's kinda surprising to me that out of all the viewing no one offered any comments.
With that said, I leave you with the thread being my last. It's time to move away from here as my path has changed so that I really have nothing to add or take from here.
Blessings and peace to you all. It's been great.
James

[Baile]

Originally Posted by Self

With that said, I leave you with the thread being my last. It's time to move away from here as my path has changed so that I really have nothing to add or take from here.

Never say never! People post that all the time and then show up a month later, heh. Just take a break and come back when it feels right. I take a break from the net all the time; spring yard work is starting to call now in fact. That said, that first post is more a religious prayer, which might explain the lack of replies in the spiritual forum.

[Gwutzi]

As a child i used to offer the end meals bite to my deity which was accepted by the supreme Godhead nevertheless as it was offered with a pure mind, much good came through that but i didnt do it more then three times i think, a spur of the moment thing, lets just put aside the last bite, that was when i was a child, You should look into the nt as well if you were sincere about offerings in terms of alms giving and how it holds up there, inasmuch as fasting and first fruits in the thanakh and torah, it would help you in what or how an offering is to be made, all is said to be done with a pure mind, if you offer to the selfless you receive of the selfless in secret revealed in public but all depends on how pure your mind and this your heart it is it comes to, many laws binding on this, im not gonna spoil this since this post itself is an offering from my part, but yeah look into that and reckon it out, i said to much already, ..., pure heart

Originally Posted by Self

I guess it's kinda surprising to me that out of all the viewing no one offered any comments.
With that said, I leave you with the thread being my last. It's time to move away from here as my path has changed so that I really have nothing to add or take from here.
Blessings and peace to you all. It's been great.
James

Interesting. I PMd someone today including a comment that offerings to the Spirit world - one's guide(s), the Lwa etc., never crop up on this forum! And, wayhayyy, now they have.

Plenty of people talk about contact with their Spirit guides, mentors, angels and things but never say whether they make offerings. My spiritual "upbringing" included the understanding that your guides appreciate offerings, not just food and/or liqueur but various things that they can't get in their world(s). They usually make things known. In some cases they expect repayment for their help and why not?

If you're having difficulty with your netherworld guide, could be time to make offerings.

.

[A human Being]

It's an interesting notion, the idea of actually putting food aside for one's guides - my first reaction was, 'Seems a bit pointless and wasteful, I mean they're not actually going to eat it, are they? ' But I guess it's symbolic, and they appreciate the gesture?

Mind, I haven't had any conscious contact with my guides, so maybe I should give it a go - maybe they're stand-offish due to my stinginess

(Everyone likes alcohol, right? Bottle of plonk, perhaps? Though knowing my luck, my guide's probably a teetotaller!)

[naturesflow]

Originally Posted by Self

This passage from the Gita posted on another thread inspired me to ask others ways in which they make offerings to the divine.
For example, when you sit down to eat how do you make an offering acknowledging the divine and your appreciation. I usually just acknowledge such but today I tried actually offering the first bites by putting it aside.
Just curious. Thanks! The first response will be offered to the divine.
"Whoever offers me with devotion and a pure mind, a leaf, a flower, a fruit
or a little water – I accept.
Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest in
sacrifice, whatever thou givest, whatever thou practisest as austerity, O
Arjuna, do it as an offering unto me."

Feed the hungry, talk to a stranger, smile and be helpful towards others, lend a listening ear to someone in need, open your heart to something that scares you but do it anyway.

Offer the whole plate of food to an elderly neighbour who may not be able to cook for themselves.

Seems more fitting to the offering of oneself and life itself to other life, rather than have it sit on a plate doing nothing and probably ending up in the bin or on the compost.

But all this is just me. I am more into offering myself more aware of myself in lots of ways of being the offering itself.

I guess you could say I am a little more practical, in relation to conscious awareness of the divine in action with regards to the reality of life in need of our sharing and giving, offerings and sacrifices.

[Gwutzi]

Yes naturesflow, there are more ways in practical term to go about offering and sacrificing; But what i think self was asking was in terms to the following of the verses of the Gita how it was prescribed in it which differ from what u wrote on in matters of depth, but since he left there might be no point in directing towards that question or answer anymore, unless someone rephrase that question again in his way possible

[naturesflow]

Originally Posted by Gwutzi

Yes naturesflow, there are more ways in practical term to go about offering and sacrificing; But what i think self was asking was in terms to the following of the verses of the Gita how it was prescribed in it which differ from what u wrote on in matters of depth, but since he left there might be no point in directing towards that question or answer anymore, unless someone rephrase that question again in his way possible

Yes I understand. I did move away from the original purpose but the offering of itself was taken, by self himself.. How I saw this in terms of the Gita verse and his question was how do I make other offerings to the divine. And the first response was going to be offered. So I guess that ended up the offering self moving onto another path = devotion to Self... Which is interesting because perhaps the divine was already learning that offerings when we ask others to offer and want to offer that up to the divine, it leads us back to ourselves as the source of the offering in everyway. The fullness of the circle of the divine in motion of itself in part or complete... Of course that leads itself to notice the same in all life and offer itself as that to the path or the aspect of life we choose to offer ourselves too.

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by Self

This passage from the Gita posted on another thread inspired me to ask others ways in which they make offerings to the divine.
For example, when you sit down to eat how do you make an offering acknowledging the divine and your appreciation. I usually just acknowledge such but today I tried actually offering the first bites by putting it aside.
Just curious. Thanks! The first response will be offered to the divine.
"Whoever offers me with devotion and a pure mind, a leaf, a flower, a fruit
or a little water – I accept.
Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest in
sacrifice, whatever thou givest, whatever thou practisest as austerity, O
Arjuna, do it as an offering unto me."

Hello Self:

Here is my 'additional' offering of some thoughts in relation to your OP:

1. The very wishful thought and [u]act[u]ion of offering implies that one has something to offer. It is the express, i.e. it is an expression of, ac-knowledge-ment that one is ‘rich’, and so has more than one ‘needs’, in some regard. Such act involves one in psychospiritually thinking, feeling and believing that one has a ‘surplus’ and so isn’t really ‘poor’, ‘needy’, ‘starving’, etc. This is an affirmation which will dynamically serve to enhance (create?) the ex-peer-ience and ex-press-ion of greater ‘sufficiency’ and ‘abundance’ of whatever one values in the context of one’s Life.

2. The same applies to the concept and act of spiritual sacrifice: it implies that one has some something which one can ‘afford’ to ‘give up’.

3. Doing so in relation to the “Me” that is ‘channeled’ in The Bhagavad Gita (which translates as The Song of God) also affirms that one is gratitudinally focused on appreciatively/lovingly/devotionally ‘serving’ to augment the Presence/Being and further ex-press-ion of Divinity (i.e. Divine Creation).

Ultimately, offering one’s personally ‘disposable’ energy, i.e. one’s ‘Life’, in service of said Being to augment Its expression (i.e. not for personally [u]self[u]ish purposes) results in one’s maximally deploying one’s (God-given ) creative potential.

The above view/interpretation is in complete alignment with “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”, which more or less advocates the same thing, I think.