Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Bg 9.26

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

Word for word: 

patram — a leaf; puṣpam — a flower; phalam — a fruit; toyam — water; yaḥ — whoever; me — unto Me; bhaktyā— with devotion; prayacchati — offers; tat — that; aham — I; bhakti–upahṛtam — offered in devotion; aśnāmi — accept; prayata–ātmanaḥ — from one in pure consciousness.

Translation: 

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

 

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ, one can offer Me very simple things like leaf, flower, fruit or simply water 

yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, when one offers Me with devotion

Then

tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam, upahara is  gift so upahṛtam, that which is offered to Me with love

Then

aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ, I accept it.

So in this verse, bhaktyā prayacchati, bhakty-upahṛtam and prayatātmanaḥ, all these show consciousness from our side. That there is devotion, prayatātmanaḥ is pure hearted one, so if somebody wanted to approach Krishna with devotion with love then Krishna reciprocates with such a person by flooding that person with His mercy. And one aspect of the mercy is Krishna accepts what is offered even if it is very simple.

E.g. is when Krishna rejected Duryodhana’s invitation for food at his house. At that time Krishna explains one eats at other house in two conditions if one is hungry or if they have affection between themselves, so I am not hungry and because you are inimical towards my dear devotees pandavas so I am not affectionate towards you. So I will not eat it and then Krishna choose to go to the house of Vidura. Vidura although connected with royal family but he was very simple he was not having much opulence so when Krishna reached at his house Vidura was not there and Vidura’s wife wanted to offer something to Krishna but there were only bananas at the house and in excitement she wanted to offer the fruits and throw away the peels but she has done reverse and Krishna eats the peels. Once to understand this pastime HG Chaintaya Charan Prabhu eats banana peels and he mentions that it is so taste less that even a fraction of it is very difficult to eat, but Krishna keeps eating and after taking many He said now I am satisfied. And Krishna left then Vidura came and said I heard that Krishna came here his wife said yes, yes then they realize that actually Krishna has eaten peels of the banana fruit and their heart filled with love.

Gajendra offered flower to Lord Narayan.

Leaf: Once Krishna was lost in kind of gambling by Rukmini, and Krishna was made to sit on weighing scale and other side how much gold was put but it was not enough then one leaf of tulsi was put then Tulsi becomes heavier. 

So essential point is what pleases the Lord is devotion of our heart and then if the expression of devotion is very simple it doesn’t matter. But a devotee always wanted to offer the best what he can. E.g. Sudama offered some dry chipped rice. 

Srila Prabhupada’s purport: there is no meat items mentioned here, Krishna doesn’t take any of those things. Krishna also accepts through His Deity form. So whatever we get by offering to Krishna directly we can get the same benefit by offering to Deity also. 

purport: Krishna can accept the offering by just looking at it also, Brahma Samhita, Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya vṛttimanti…Krishna senses are identical and interchangeable but that doesn’t mean we treat Krishna as impersonal, devotees take care of Krishna as a person and in pastimes suddenly He can exhibit his omnipotence also but devotees focus is not in examining omnipotence but in rendering best possible service. So when food is offered Krishna accepts the devotion and returns His mercy, He can also accept the food by glancing over it. 

e.g. a frind gives some eatable in a box and the family which receives it also return the box filled by some other item so if someone is observing he may say what is this a box came inside and same box goes outside so nothing happens. But what is exchanged is love even if the box is the same and say the content is also the same. So when we are offering food or Bhoga to Krishna we are offering our Bhakti to Him and what we get back, externally food is same but it come with His Kripa mercy. So in this way there is reciprocation of love through the medium of food.

End of transcription.