9.26 A leaf, a flower, water Krishna speaks
पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति
तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः
patraṁ puṣhpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayachchhati
tadahaṁ bhaktyupahṛitam aśhnāmi prayatātmanaḥ
A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water — whoever offers me these with devotion, I accept that offering from one who has given it with a pure heart.
Explanation
A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water.
Four things available to anyone anywhere, with no priest, no fire and no expense. What makes the offering acceptable is named separately: a pure heart.
Set this against 9.16, where he is every component of the elaborate rite. Having claimed the whole apparatus, he asks for a leaf.
Going further
Word by word
- patram
- a leaf
- puṣhpam
- a flower
- phalam
- a fruit
- toyam
- water
- yaḥ
- who
- me
- to me
- bhaktyā
- with devotion
- prayachchhati
- offers
- tat
- that
- aham
- I
- bhakti-upahṛitam
- offered with devotion
- aśhnāmi
- partake
- prayata-ātmanaḥ
- one in pure consciousness
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A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water. The chapter's title comes from here, and this is the verse the art was made from.
Four things any person anywhere could produce at no cost. After ten verses in which Krishna identifies himself with the entire apparatus of sacrifice — the rite, the fire, the offering, the pouring — the required contribution turns out to be whatever is to hand. The operative word is bhaktyā: with devotion. Everything else in the list is deliberately worthless.