The culinary art of bhiksha: how to feed a visiting guru

For Hindus, there is an ever rotating roster of travelling gurus and swamis whose lectures they can attend, either in or out of India. If you are of a certain social standing, it is customary to invite a holy person to one’s home for a bhiksha, Sanskrit for “alms” – food given as a charitable act. Much respect is given to the visiting spiritual teacher, from the ritual welcoming of the guru into the household with a decorated coconut, a plate of sacred items including lights with wicks soaked in ghee (clarified butter), and mantra chanting. The meal generally becomes an opportunity for satsang, or a casual spiritual gathering where guests can engage in an informal pre-dinner question and answer session with the teacher. Hosts will invite family and friends, or extend the invitation to all of the guru’s students.

Shubhraji is a Vedanta teacher based in Woodstock, New York. Every January, she comes to Hong Kong and holds early morning classes and English language workshops and talks around town, as well as conducting a major puja (ritual worship) for the local Sindhi community. Come February and March, she leads pilgrimages to India, and is planning a retreat in Kyoto, Japan, for next spring.

Sunil and Bharti Uttamchandani have been hosting Shubhraji in their Magazine Gap Road home, which looks like a Shiva temple in a space station, metallic accents on all white reflective walls, which slide open to reveal doorways. Bharti had wanted to host a bhiksha, but Shubhraji had already told her that it wasn’t necessary since the the family had already been taking care of her during her Hong Kong visit.

“In the end, I didn’t plan on having one as I was feeling a bit under the weather from all the travelling I had been doing,” Uttamchandani said. “But God had other plans.” This writer, interested in insight to the bhiksha culture, had contacted Shubhraji, and knowing that the guru was staying with the Uttamchandanis, had asked if she would be willing to host a small satsang.