Banana&Coconut

[satyabalu]

"Why only Coconut and Banana offered in the temples ?

Coconut and Banana are the only two fruits which are considered to be the "Sacred fruits". All other fruits are tainted fruits ( partially eaten fruits), meaning other fruits have seeds and which have the capacity to reproduce !

But in the case of coconut, if you eat coconut and throw its outer shell, nothing will grow out of it. If you want to grow a coconut tree, you have to sow the entire coconut itself.

Similarly Banana. If you eat a banana and throw its out sleeves, nothing will grow out of it. Banana tree is grown on its own when a banana plant start giving fruits.

The outer shell of coconut is the Ahamkara or ego, which one has to break. Once the ego is shed the mind will be as pure as the white tender coconut inside. The Bhavaavesha or Bhakthi will pour like the sweet water in it. The 3 eyes on the top they explain as Satwa, Raja and Tama or Past , Present and Future or Sthoola, Sukshma and Karana Sareera or body etc

Our ancestors had found this reality long ago and they had made it as a system which is till followed religiously.!"

[priyaram78]

Thanks for sharing. Also would like to know the significance of betel leaf and betel nut. Had read about betel leaf somewhere but cant recollect.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

http://www.chennailivenews.com/Religion ... -leaf.aspx

[Nick H]

Hmmm... If you eat an apple and throw away it's skin, nothing will grow from it. If you leave bananas on the tree too long, you will find seeds growing in their middle, just as seeds grow in the middle of the apple. Bananas certainly do have seeds, and the coconut is a seed. An Ostrich egg is no less an egg because it is huge

There are a number of different kinds of fruit/seed/nut, with different structures, and I do not remember their names: we need a botanist for that...

I'm sorry if I am being unduly rationalist (and maybe some of my botany is wrong anyway), but, with or without gods, I think we ought to get it straight!

[anandasangeetham]

On banana there is no seed even if you leave it in the tree for any period of time.....and further even if the banana (raw - ripe )is planted it will not grow into a tree.....

Coconut is a NUT and if left with as it is will grow into a baby plant......

similarly if a peel of any other fruit is planted nothing will grow out of it.....plants grow out of seeds or stems or roots

[rshankar]

I have seen apples, oranges, peaches, mangoes etc, offered at temples...I do not see any objection to offering anything as long as it is done with devotion - I do not need to quote the story of kaNNappan, to support this contention.
Many of these fruits are foriegn to India and introduced more recently than bananas and coconuts - hence they may not have found a place in our scriptures.

[Nick H]

On banana there is no seed even if you leave it in the tree for any period of time

Not sure, about the length of time thing, but bananas can have seeds. I guess that is the whole point, in terms of their part in the universe, of bananas: to recreate banana trees. That's why bananas

Most of the bananas we eat do not have seeds. The ones with seeds are, maybe not quite so pleasant to eat.

Somebody help me out here... This is Southern India, surely we have banana cultivators among our members! I don't count myself, but I don't know why the bananas we grow in our garden are sometimes good to eat and sometimes not, or why they sometimes have seeds and sometimes don't.

But rshankar seems to be spot on: surely, as the saying goes, it's the thought that counts

[harimau]

Wild bananas have large back seeds in them.

Cultivated banks have tiny seeds -- the back spots in the middle of the fruit -- and if the bananas are not picked in time but left on the banana plant to ripen, they also develop large seeds.

In neither case are the seeds productive. They do not produce new banana plants if planted in soil and carefully nurtured.

Banana plants send out shoots at the base and these form new banana plants.

[Nick H]

Amazing. So, the myth of seedless banana is exploded, but the question of Why Bananas remains open.

Thanks.

[priyaram78]

In my humble opinion the coconut tree has always been called a kalpavriksha wish fufilling tree and so has a great importance in Hindu culture. So given in temples.
The banana I have heard is favourite of Lord Vishnu and is given as an offering in temples like Guruvayur After thulabharam.

[arasi]

Both have been around for a long time and naturally were used as offerings to the gods.

There may be others, but I cannot think of any other trees which yield fruit, fiber, fronds, leaves, flowers (with bananas), all of which are put to use for consumption or they are utilized as plates, brooms, strands for making garlands, for cleaning vessels and so on and on.