hindu-devotionWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.

Grace / Blessed Offering (Prasāda)

Divine grace made tangible — the blessed offering returned from worship into the devotee's hand.

Prasāda means 'graciousness,' and it carries two joined senses. It is divine grace itself — the favor and serene goodwill of God toward the devotee, on which the theistic traditions teach that liberation finally depends. And it is the very tangible form that grace takes in worship: the food or substance offered to the deity and then returned, now blessed, to be shared among the worshippers. To receive prasāda is to receive, in the hand, a token of the Lord's grace.