PRADEEP LAWANDE
Presently, laddoo has become the centre of a big row in our country. I hereby place before you the whole story. At Tirupati, in the State of Andhra Pradesh in India, stands a grand temple of Lord Balaji. This God is also known as Venkateshwar and is considered as ‘the richest God in the World’. Lord Venkateshwar is fond of laddoos. Therefore, his worshipers daily offer him laddoos and then distribute them as prasadam among all his devotees across the world. Thus daily 3.5 lakh laddoos are required to be prepared! By sale of these laddoos, the above temple earns an income of more than Rs 500 crore per year. Each day around 50,000 followers of Lord Balaji visit Tirupati Temple.
Recently, some people alleged that these laddoos of Tirupati contained ingredients of animal fats and fish oil. And a laboratory of Gujarat after testing the laddoos confirmed that the above allegations were true. Naturally, all the followers of Lord Balaji were aggrieved. In the meantime, politics entered into this controversy making the matter worse. Blame games began and the debate acquired newer heights.
Laddoo is an age-old food item of our country. It is spherical or round. Maybe because of this very shape, laddoo has attained a high spiritual level because the sun and the moon are round. Our Earth is round. And for that matter most of the heavenly bodies are round! In addition, we find mention of laddoos in our ancient Puranas and Upanishads. Lord Ganapati loved laddoos. We see laddoos in the hands of many idols of this God. Bhagawan Sri Krishna had a strong liking for laddoos from his early childhood. There is a story in Puranas wherein little Krishna secretly ate laddoos that were kept for offering God by his mother Yashodha. Because of his intense love for laddoos, younger Krishna was fondly called “Laddoo Gopal”.
In our country around 600 BCE, there lived a great surgeon named Maharshi Susrut. He is called ‘the father of Indian surgery’. This surgeon used to give his patients a type of laddoos which contained ingredients having medical properties. It is also found that the people of ancient civilisation of Harappa made laddoos and consumed them as part of rituals.
There is a tradition in India of distributing laddoos during auspicious occasions. The relation of marriage and laddoo is everlasting here. In fact laddoo is a symbol of a wedding. In Goa when one asks another, “when would you give us ladoos?” Then it means “when are you getting married?” Ladoos and pedhas are served at happy moments only”. This is not the case of ‘Vades’. Hence a proverb ‘Vades are served during births as well as during death’ is formed in Konkani.
A laddoo is not any ordinary sweetmeat. There are innumerable types of laddoos having numerous names. Again ladoos are of different sizes, colours, fragrances, flavours and weights. There is of course one equality amidst this vast diversity. It is that all laddoos are round. Thus roundness is their identity!
It is unfortunate that a controversy arises around an ancient, sacred and humble food item called laddoo. In fact what we offer to God is not important. It is the feelings or sentiments behind such an offering that are important. There is an episode in Ramayana. One poor, old woman named Shabari offers to Sri Ram a few ber (berries) fruits which the former had already tasted. And Sri Ram eats them all with great delight!