Question: When we take Lord Damodara door to door for facilitating people to offer lamp and they haven’t taken bath, especially westerners, is it okay for them to offer lamps? What is the minimum cleanliness for new people required to offer lamps?

Jayapataka Swami: Interesting question. Nobody ever asked such a question before! I don’t know if you can have them take acaman beforehand and offer the lamp. I don’t know if there are any hard and fast rules for offering lamps. But chanting the holy name, there is no hard and fast rule. So I didn’t hear that there is some restriction on anyone offering a lamp. So the least you can do is offer them acaman, give them a spoon of water in their hand and then they can offer the lamps so that washing of the hand, that is some aspect of cleanliness. Hare Krsna!
07-OCTOBER-2019 ISKCON TIRUPATI, INDIA