During worship at the domestic altar or in temples, you offer God ‘naivedya’ (eatable items) in the form of fruits and sweets. Sour or bitter things are not offered, for God is sweetness personified. Earn His Grace by avoiding sour temperament and bitter behaviour. Fill every thought, word and deed with the sweetness of Love. Then, you can enter the battlefield of the world, sure of Victory, since God has promised to serve as your charioteer. (SSS Vol.18, p. 92)

The ancient Bharatiyas laid down some regulations as indices of right behaviour. From days of yore, Bharatiyas observed certain sacred days as festivals dedicated to the Divine. For instance, on these festival days, they used to make a naivedyam (an offering of food to the Divine). These offerings consisted only of sweet edibles. If nothing else was available, they would offer a piece of jaggery or sugar candy or a plantain. The inner significance of offering these sweet things to God is the recognition that God is full of sweetness. Hence, devotion should be filled with sweetness. ‘Your words are sweet. Your looks are sweet; your heart is sweet. Oh Lord of Mathura (Krishna)! You are the personification of sweetness.’ (This was how a devotee addressed Krishna). In offering sweets to the Lord man today is often motivated by selfishness. He consumes himself the sweets (instead of sharing them with others).

A significant observance on festival days is the breaking of coconuts as an offering to the Lord. The meaning of this practice has to be rightly understood. A coconut has three constituents. The outermost constituent is the hard fibrous cover. Insider it is a very hard shell. Inside the shell is the pure copra. To remove the fibre, you need a sharp knife. To break the shell, you require a stone or some other hard instrument. After breaking the shell, you get at the pure white kernel. The symbolism behind the offering of the coconut should be properly understood. Our body itself is like a coconut. The outer body made up of the three gunas is comparable to the fibrous covering of the coconut. It is the gross body. The subtle body, which constitutes Avidya or ignorance of the Real, is comparable to the hard shell of the coconut. To remove detachment, the subtle body represents the mental process to eliminate the limitations of this mental process, you have to engage yourself in good deeds and entertain good thoughts. (SSS Vol.24, pp. 45-46)