It is the custom of pious Maharashtrian women, even now, to offer the food cooked by them as naivedya to the Lord in any nearby temple, before the family partakes of the food. Nam Dev’s mother Guna Bai too had this habit. She would take a plate of freshly cooked food to the temple at Pandharpur, to offer to God Vitthal, before the family sat down to eat lunch. Thus, every meal was eaten as prasad in their devout family. One day, Guna Bai was unable to go to the temple herself; so she asked her young son, Nam Dev to take the food to the temple and offer it to the Lord.
The young boy happily agreed to do so, and set off for the temple. He set the plate before the deity, closed his eyes tightly and begged the Lord to accept the food he had brought. But to his dismay, when he opened his eyes, he found the food on the plate untouched. For him, naivedya was not just a show-and-take-away ritual. He closed his eyes once again, and implored the Lord to accept the food. When the food was still left untouched, the boy began to shed bitter tears. “Vitthala! Vitthala!” he called out piteously, “Don’t you like me? Are you angry with me, that you refuse to touch the food I have brought to you?”
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