Bhagavat gita adetailed study-chapter 9 -Brahmavidya the royal secret

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26. pathram pushpam halam thoyam yo me bhakthyaa

prayacachathi

thadhaham bhakthyupahrtham aSnaami prayathaathmanaH

Whatever you give Me, a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even water, with devotion , I will take it with pleasure.

Bhishma says to Yudhishtira about the highest dharma of all, yadbhakthyaa pundareekasham sthavairarcheth narah esha dharmassanaathanah,' the worship of the Lotus eyed Lord is the age old dharma. This is aadhikyena abhimatham, considered the greatest because it can be done without depending on anything or anybody and without disturbing others, can be done by anyone without distinction of caste, creed or sex. The last point is stressed by Krishna later in the chapter.

It is said in the Mahabharatha that the Lord expects nothing more than poornakumbha, offering of a pot of water, , padhasevana, worshipping His feet and kusalaprasna, loving words.;.'anyath poorNodhapAm kumbhAth anyath pAdhAvvanejanAth anyath kuSalasampaSnAth na chECCHathi janArdhanah.

The Lord accepted the humble food in the house of Vidhura offered with bhakthi, bhakthyupahrthamm, and refused the grand feast offered by Duryodhana without love. Similarly He took by force and relished the flaked rice which Kuchela brought, but was ashamed to offer, and enjoyed the fruits given by Sabari with devotion.

This sloka shows that the path of devotion is the easiest.

Why and how the path of devotion is the easiest is denoted by the next sloka

27. yathkaroshi yadhaSnaasi yajjuhoshi dhdhdaasi yath

yatthapasyasi kountheya that kurushva madharpaNam

Whatever one does, eats, offer, give away and whatever austerity one practises he should do it all as an offering to God.

Once Krishna and Arjuna were going towards devaloka when Arjuna saw huge heaps of flowers on the way. Arjuna asked Krishna about it and Krishna replied that they were the flowers offered to him in worship by Bheema. Arjuna was surprised as he had never seen Bhima doing any pooja. Arjuna thought that the flowers offered by himself in worship must be a bigger heap as he used to do pooja everyday and asked Krishna where were the flowers he himself worshipped and Krishan pointed to a miserable small heap and said that those were the flowers Arjuna offered. When Arjuna was piqued Krishna said that Bheema used to offer what ever he saw to Krishna by way of worship but Arjuna offered only those he had at the time of his pooja. This illustrates the importance of offering everything one does to the Lord.

This seems easily said than done but there is a lot of sense in it. For instance when a servant is doing a job for his master whom he adores, he will do it in the best of his ablity but he does it with the attitude that the result and the agency of action belongs not to him but to his master. Thus he is not riddled with anxiety and hence will be able to do it well.

This actually combines karmayoga and bhakthiyoga as the former is easier to do with the spirit of bhakthi. The simplest method for spiritual evolution is to surrender to the Lord and do everything as His kainkarya, may it be for sustenance of the body, or maintaining a family or vaidika karma. This attitude will rid one of ego and desire. It is not at all difficult but to have that attitude one must first acquire devotion for which also we require His grace. So the first and foremost prayer should be to ask for unswerving devotion and rest will automatically fall in place.