How to offer bhoga? -

Yeah, stupid question. But still... Suppose:

A newbie is interested in raganuga-bhakti, he likes someone like Srila Ananta das Babaji to be his future Gurudeva, but he´s not initiated yet, how would you suppose him to offer his bhoga?

The Gaudiya Math differs from ISKCON ( my confused upbringing) in their methods. Do I offer it or do I ask the Guru (then) or a saint (now) to do the offering, since i´m not qualified.

Please help.

Thanks,

Tarunji

Not a stupid question. Practical.

But I'm not sure if each of us does it exactly the same if we have different gurus from different lines.

One thing we all have in common as far as I know, and in common with most Hindus besides, is that Bhoga is offered to Krishna (Thakur). Not to Gurudeva. Or rather we only offer Krishnaprasad to Gurudeva and Gosvami (after it is offered to Krishna and Pancha-Tattva first).

This idea of offering to one's guru and up the disciplic succession is an interesting innovation by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. I guess it is a form of Guru-pranali seva, but this is unknown outside Srila Bhaktisiddahanta and his followers. No other Hindus do this offering bhoga to Guru, except perhaps Advaitins, as far as I am aware.

In my line we do mantra japa of diksha mantra while offering bhoga to Thakur. If you don't have diksha mantra, then I suggest Mahamantra until you get it. By chanting Mahamantra sincerely, you become qualified to that extent. Then diksha mantra makes you 'more' qualified, because the Guru empowers you and blesses you with specific seva to Thakur or whatever. The 'more' is actually 'more focussed'.

The process is to go from broadly serving Krishna in a general sense, in this world, to more narrowly focussed seva, in the aprakata Lila.

A process of refinement.

Until diksha, I suggest to chant Mahamantra and offer to Krishna.

Or to Mahaprabhu if you prefer, but don't be overly worried about qualification: you have to come to want Krishna. This feeling cannot develop if you are avoiding him in awe and reverence.