Incense

Incense

Because incense provides beautiful aromas for the Lord's pleasure, it has been used in offerings to Krishna for millennia. In the traditional temple worship ceremony (Arati), incense is the first item offered to the Lord. Anything used in the Lord's service becomes purified and has a purifying effect on the consciousness. Therefore, whoever smells the aroma of incense after it has been offered to the Lord becomes cleansed of material contamination. Offering incense is as simple as (1) prayerfully asking the Lord to accept your service, (2) lighting the stick of incense, and (3) waving it in circles around the Lord. In traditional ceremonies, one rings a bell while waving the incense in a circle three times at the Lord's feet, twice at His waist, and seven times around His body. Because this is your offering to the Lord, choose a fragrance that you would especially like Him to enjoy at the time of the offering.

 

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Good quality incense--How can you tell what kind of incense you've bought? Good quality incense is handrolled, thus often is uneven on the stick.Most are rolled onto splinters of bamboo or other thin reed-like sticks. The incense itself will be grainy and slightly oily to touch, depending on the flavor and the ingredients. It will retain its scent in the package for over a year, and diffuse its scent evenly while it burns. Some incense is designed as 'long-burning', but regardless, good incense of an average length will burn from 30 to 50 minutes or longer. The fragrance will linger in a room for hours, sometimes days. Bad incense looks 'manufactured' or machine cut. It is dry and crusty to touch from being mixed with dung and dirt to fill it out. Its scent is either very faint, or distinctly chemical. Often a toxic scent-additive is doused over the stick to make the so-called fragrance and to encourage burning. It burns unevenly and quickly, and the scent that remains after an hour is bitter or unpleasant. Here at the Krishna.com store we offer only high grade incense. When you shop here, you know quality is a guarantee.