While eating, our attention should not be focused just on the taste. Imagine our chosen deity or guru is present within us and that we are feeding Him. This will turn eating into a spiritual practice.

May your thoughts, words and actions arise from love.

Fundamentally, what everyone needs is mental strength and confidence, to manage the mind, just as we manage the outside world.

After praying, and before eating anything, it is a good custom for everyone to feed one another a small portion of the food. This will help to cultivate mutual love and affection among the family members.

Children, we are told to make an offering at the temple or at the feet of the guru, not because the Lord or guru is in need of wealth or anything else. Real offering is the act of surrendering the mind and the intellect. How can it be done? We cannot offer our minds as they are, but only the things to which our minds are attached. Today our minds are greatly attached to money and other worldly things. By placing such thoughts at the feet of the Lord, we are offering Him our heart. This is the principle behind giving charities.

The impermanent, which is the body, is given too much importance. The permanent, which is the Atman, is completely forgotten. This should change.

What we need is peace of mind. We can gain that only through the control of our mind.