A Deeper Look at Bhagavad Gita Verse 9.26

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it.

The highest perfection of human life as mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.13 is to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam. Whatever we do and whatever our occupation, our main purpose should be to please the Supreme Lord. 

This process of pleasing the Lord is called devotional service or bhakti. In Bhagavad Gita 9.26, bhakti is mentioned twice by Kṛṣṇa. Bhaktyā prayacchati and bhakty-upahṛtam. Though it may sound redundant, it reveals that bhakti is the only means to approach Kṛṣṇa. 

We also learn that pure loving exchange is what the Lord is looking for and not the external quality of what is offered. Kṛṣṇa wants only loving service and nothing more. Kṛṣṇa accepts even a little leaf, flower, fruit, or water from His pure devotees. However, he does not want any kind of offering from a non-devotee who is not engaged in bhakti. 

Therefore the process of achieving devotional service is very easy and can be attempted even by the poorest of the poor, without any kind of qualification. The only qualification required in this connection is to be a pure devotee of the Lord. 

Kṛṣṇa Does Not Need Our Offerings

Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.11: The Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always fully satisfied in Himself. Therefore when something is offered to Him, the offering, by the Lord’s mercy, is for the benefit of the devotee, for the Lord does not need service from anyone. To give an example, if one’s face is decorated, the reflection of one’s face in a mirror is also seen to be decorated.

Kṛṣṇa does not need anything from anyone, because He is self-sufficient. Kṛṣṇa is not hungry; Kṛṣṇa is providing food for everyone yet He wants our love and devotion to purify us of our material existence and take us back home back to Godhead.  

The Lord is always glorious, whether the devotee glorifies Him or not, but if the devotee engages in glorifying the Lord, the devotee himself automatically becomes glorious. By glorifying the Lord constantly, the living entity becomes purified in the core of his heart, and thus he can understand that he does not belong to the material world but is a spirit soul whose actual activity is to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that he may become free from the material clutches (SB 7.9.11 purport). 

Examples Of Pure Devotees 

Advaita Acharya Offered Tulasi leaves & Ganga Water to Summon Lord Caitanya

Advaita Ācārya was a contemporary of Lord Caitanya’s father. He felt sorry for the condition of the world because even after Lord Kṛṣṇa’s appearance, no one had interest in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. This forgetfulness was so overwhelming that Advaita Prabhu was convinced that no one but Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself could enlighten people about devotional service to the Supreme Lord. 

It is said that Kṛṣṇa is so much pleased by such devotional service that He offers Himself to His devotee in exchange for it. Śrīla Advaita Ācārya knew this fact, and therefore He decided to call for the Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa to descend as Lord Caitanya by worshiping the Lord with tulasī leaves and the water of the Ganges.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Adi 3.104

tulasī-dala-mātreṇa

jalasya culukena vā

vikrīṇīte svam ātmānaṁ

bhaktebhyo bhakta-vatsalaḥ

“Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is very affectionate toward His devotees, sells Himself to a devotee who offers Him merely a tulasī leaf and a palmful of water.”

Fruit Seller Offers Fruits to Lord Kṛṣṇa

In Kṛṣṇa book chapter 11 we find a wonderful pastime. One day, a fruit vendor came before the house of Nanda Mahārāja. Upon hearing the vendor call, “If anyone wants fruits, please come and take them from me!” child Kṛṣṇa immediately took some grains in His palms and went to get fruits in exchange. 

In those days exchange was by barter; therefore Kṛṣṇa might have seen His parents acquire fruits and other things by bartering grain, and so He imitated. But His palms were very small, and He was not very careful to hold the grains tight, so He was dropping them. 

The vendor who came to sell fruits saw this and was very much captivated by the beauty of the Lord, so she immediately accepted whatever few grains were left in His palms and filled His hands with fruits. In the meantime, the vendor saw that her whole basket of fruit had become filled with jewels. The Lord is the bestower of all benedictions. If someone gives something to the Lord, he is not the loser; he is the gainer by a million times.

Gajendra Offered a Lotus Flower To Nārāyaṇa

Gajendra was in an awkward position having been attacked by the crocodile for one thousand years. In that precarious condition, he offered sincere prayers glorifying the Lord. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, seated on Garuḍa, personally appeared before him to liberate him from his predicament. 

Despite being overwhelmed by acute pain, Gajendra offered a lotus flower to the Lord by lifting his trunk and spoke: nārāyaṇākhila-guro bhagavan namas te: “O my Lord, Nārāyaṇa, master of the universe, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.”

The Lord immediately pulled him from the water along with the crocodile who had captured his leg. Then the Lord killed the crocodile and thus rescued Gajendra who became one of the Lord’s four-handed associates in the spiritual world.

Conclusion

In Sri Padyavali by Srila Rupa Gosvami verse 117, it is written as follows

O Lord Murari, as You enjoyed the palatable food presented by the wives of the brahmanas, the meal offered by Vidura, the milk and yogurt of the cows in Vraja, the handful of chipped rice from Your friend Sudama Brahmana, the breast-milk of Mother Yasoda, and the delicious foods prepared by the young girls of Vraja, I hope the offering I now place before You, You will also enjoy in the same way. 

In this way Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī Prabhupāda prays that his offering of love would be accepted by the Lord and it is indeed accepted for he is honored all over the three worlds, having taken the shelter of the transcendental loving service of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and is a shelter for fallen souls like us.

In conclusion, all these examples reveal to us the supremacy of bhakti and how Kṛṣṇa becomes so much pleased by devotional service that He offers Himself to His devotee in exchange for it. No kind of material qualification is the means for satisfying the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The supermost occupation for all human beings is bhakti.

 

References

  1. Bhagavad Gita 9.26
  2. Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.11
  3. Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Adi 3.104 – 3.110
  4. Kṛṣṇa book chapter 11
  5. Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.32
  6. Sri Padyavali Verse 117