How about some cakes and burgers as prasad?

In what may sound unusual by traditional standards, a temple in the outskirts of Chennai has replaced customary offerings like tamarind rice and sweet pongal with contemporary offerings like burgers, sandwiches, salads and cakes, reported a national English daily.

If this wasn’t quirky enough, the temple, Jaya Durga Peetham, makes devotees slip a token into a vending machine to collect the boxes of their ‘pret-a-prasadam’, which is prepared with precision in the automated temple kitchen.

In case you are game for more surprises, the prasad is certified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, with manufacturing and expiry date stamps.

“The idea was to show that anything that is nutritious and prepared in a clean kitchen with a clean mind can be served to God. It doesn’t have to be only traditional dishes,” K Sridhar, a herbal oncologist who helped set up the temple, told the Times of India. He added that his idea to serve desserts and sandwiches as part of the temple prasadam has raked up quite a bit of interest among locals and tourists alike.

Extending the avant garde services further, the temple, a few months ago, introduced ‘birthday cake prasadam’. “We maintain a computerised register of their (devotees) birth dates and addresses and deliver a cake prasadam to them. It’s a hit among the elderly devotees. Since it is sent by the temple authorities, it adds a special touch to the occasion,” Sridhar said.