Digest Number 2158

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Text 26

pat ram puspam phalam toyam

yo me bhaktya prayacchati

tad aham bhakty-upahrtam

asnami prayatatmanah

 

patram-a leaf; puspam-a flower; phalam-a fruit; toyam-water; yah-

whoever; me-unto Me; bhaktya-with devotion: prayacchati-offers; tat-

that; aham-I; bhakti-upahrtam-offered in devotion; asnami-accept;

prayata-atmanah-of one in pure consciousness.

 

TRANSLATION

 

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or

water, I will accept it.

 

PURPORT

 

Here Lord Krsna having established that He is the only enjoyer, the

primeval Lord, and the real object of all sacrificial offerings,

reveals what types of sacrifices He desires to be offered. If one

wishes to engage in devo­tional service to the Supreme in order to be

purified and to reach the goal of life-the transcendental loving

service of God-then he should find out what the Lord desires of him.

One who loves Krsna will give Him whatever He wants, and he avoids

offering anything which is undesirable or unasked for. Thus, meat,

fish and eggs should not be offered to Krsna If He desired such

things as offerings, He would have said so. Instead He clearly

requests that a leaf, fruit, flowers and water be given to Him, and

He says of this offering, "I will accept it." Therefore, we should

understand that He will not accept meat, fish and eggs. Vegetables,

grains, fruits, milk and water are the proper foods for human beings

and are prescribed by Lord Krsna Himself. Whatever else we eat cannot

be offered to Him, since He will not accept it. Thus we cannot be

acting on the level of loving devotion if we offer such foods.

In the Third Chapter, verse thirteen, Sri Krsna explains that only

the remains of sacrifice are purified and fit for consumption by

those who are seeking advancement in life and release from the

clutches of the material entanglement. Those who do not make an

offering of their food, He says in the same verse, are said to be

eating only sin. In other words, their every mouthful is simply

deepening their involvement in the complexities of material nature.

But preparing nice, simple vegetable dishes, offering them before the

picture or Deity of Lord Krsna and bowing down and praying

for Him to accept such a humble offering, enable one to advance

steadily in life, to purify the body, and to create fine brain

tissues which will lead

to clear thinking. Above all, the offering should be made with an

attitude of love. Krsna has no need of food, since He already

possesses everything that be, yet He will accept the offering of one

who desires to please him in that way. The important element, in

preparation, in serving and in offer­ing, is to act with love for

Krsna.

The impersonalist philosophers, who wish to maintain that the

Absolute Truth is without senses, cannot comprehend this verse of

Bhagavad-gita. To them, it is either a metaphor or proof of the

mundane character of Krsna, the speaker of the Gita. But, in

actuality, Krsna, the Supreme God­head, has senses, and it is stated

that His senses are interchangeable; in other words, one sense can

perform the function of any other. This is what it means to say that

Krsna is absolute. Lacking senses, He could hardly be considered full

in all opulences. In the Seventh Chapter, Krsna has explained that He

impregnates the living entities into material nature. This is done by

His looking upon material nature. And so in this instance, Krsna's

hearing the devotee's words of love in offering foodstuffs is wholly

identical with His eating and actually tasting. This point should be

emphasized: because of His absolute position, His hearing is wholly

identi­cal with His eating and tasting. Only the devotee, who accepts

Krsna as He describes Himself, without interpretation, can understand

that the Supreme Absolute Truth can eat food and enjoy it.