Chocolate Ganesha, Anyone?

If chocolate is sinful then you need to turn to the Gods for some forgiveness! Now in a timesaving shortcut strategy, the gods themselves are dipped in chocolate. A New York based company called Chocolate Deities dips the gods in white, dark and milk chocolate. “Many people worship the Buddha. Many people worship chocolate. Now you can do both at the same time,” wrote Tricycle magazine, the Buddhist Review.

The fascination with Hindu gods and goddesses doesn’t seem to end for Ganesha, Krishna and the Om symbol have been transformed into sculptures in chocolate. Chocolate deities are handcrafted of quality Belgian, fair-trade dark, milk and white chocolate and even sugarless chocolate by family chocolatiers in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Each one carries with it the story of that particular deity and implicitly a wish.

The chocolates are made fresh every day and the company makes any deity on order. The company seems to be an equal opportunities business, though, for the chocolate is extended not only to Hindu gods but also to Jesus, the Star of David, Buddha and a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses. The philosophy of the company is: “After flowers, chocolate is the offering most pleasing to the gods and goddesses of nearly every culture. What better than an offering, a prayer and dessert all in one — the chocolate Deities?” Lord Ganesha, who loves sweets, would probably approve.

Taking a bite out of the Divine Mother, Ganesha or Krishna may seem a bit sacrilegious, but the boxes are beautiful and so are the spiritual stories tucked into each gift box. Perhaps Hindus can just keep them on the altar and worship them!

Jeanne Fleming of Chocolate Deities, who is into world religions, is well aware of the reservations some Hindus might have, but says she has many Hindu customers: “Everyone realizes you don’t have to eat them. You can keep them as just a beautiful object with the spirit attached to them, that’s OK. Many put them on their altars, and some make them as an offering and later put them in a body of water. Still others grate the thick chocolate into coffee or dessert, keeping the veneer of the image intact and that they later place on their home shrine.”

One Hindu woman ordered 400 handpainted chocolate Oms in pink and white as keepsakes for the guests who attended her child’s naming ceremony. The deities have also been bought by the Chopra Center and Kripalu Institute. Recently the devotees of Amma, the spiritual mother for many, ordered a large chocolate oval inscribed with the108 names of the Divine Mother for her birthday. Amma, famous for her loving hugs, broke the chocolate into pieces and distributed it amongst her devotees.