In a mandir, worshippers may offer food (such as chick peas, coconuts, fruit etc) or flowers (and accompanying prayers). The mandir priest helps to bring these to the actual murti, seeing as he is more spiritually pure and developed to do so.
The food offerings may sometimes be symbolic. For example, coconuts are symbolic as their outer layer is rough and coarse and seen as "impure" but the inner layer is "pure".
The priest then also distributes the food offerings back to the Hindu community in the mandir, as prashad (blessed food). In this way, everybody can gain good karma, to escape samsara, and to achieve moksha.
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The food offerings may sometimes be symbolic. For example, coconuts are symbolic as their outer layer is rough and coarse and seen as "impure" but the inner layer is "pure".
The priest then also distributes the food offerings back to the Hindu community in the mandir, as prashad (blessed food). In this way, everybody can gain good karma, to escape samsara, and to achieve moksha.
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