IF YOU EAT IT AS MERE CANDY, IT HAS NO MEANING

 
After some music, Baba left the barn for the Lagoon Cabin, and in the afternoon the men went to visit him in his house. They were ushered into the living-room where Baba sat in the far corner, wearing his pink coat. He was in a hearty mood, recalling the hilarious show the men had put on for him the day before. It was a mood of man to man. After embracing each man, Baba placed a wrapped candy into the right hand of each. There was no discourse; the reception was simple and brief.

He then came out of the house and walked slowly across the garden and stopped near the magnolia tree in the shade. A chair was brought out and Baba was seated. He told the men to fan out so that they might catch the candy he would throw, and began tossing it in his usual way, i.e. looking in one direction and throwing in another. When the candy was not caught it was returned, as Baba said it was not to be retained as prasad.

"This is not a game," he said.

It was a link between himself and each lover, for the future. "If you eat it with the feeling that it is the gift of God, you benefit; but if you eat it as mere candy, it has no meaning. Don't give the candy to anyone else. It is to be eaten immediately by the recipient."

He said:

Krishna was the first Avatar to institute the custom of prasad. Once he was in the company of four companions or lovers and a rishi who lived in the mountain fastnesses came for Krishna's prasad. He had lived so long in meditation that his eyelashes grew downwards and ants made their home on his body. Krishna replied that prasad was for his lovers and none else. This consisted of laddu or Indian sweetmeat balls. At last the Rishi, who was very intelligent, begged Krishna's favourite disciple, Pendya, who was a cripple, to ask Krishna for him. This Krishna permitted (because he was the slave of his lovers) and as a result the Rishi gained illumination.