Devotional growth is essentially the growth of our loving
relationship with Krishna. To make this relationship mutually satisfying and
spiritually liberating, we need to connect with him purely, without any ulterior
motives for material gain. When we offer with a pure heart, he accepts even the
simplest of things – a fruit, a flower, a leaf or just a little water – as
stated in the Bhagavad-gita (09.26). This verse is profoundly reassuring: we
don’t need material opulences to approach Krishna; just a pure and devoted
heart is enough. Yet this same reassuring declaration can be disheartening when
we don’t have much devotion. But Krishna mercifully accommodates even the
impure-hearted. In the next verse (09.27), he states that whatever we eat,
sacrifice, donate – essentially, whatever we do – we can offer him. The Gita
commentator Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura underscores that this verse
mentions the action first, the offering later – this sequence conveys the mentality
of such seekers: Offering to Krishna is not their driving intention; it is an
afterthought. Nonetheless, even such seekers receive Krishna’s mercy. Be we
pure or not, he wants us to connect with him. And because he is all-pure and
all-purifying, that connection will purify us. The act of offering to him with
the desire for devotion will link our heart with him, thereby granting higher
fulfillment and decreasing the craving for lower pleasures. This twofold change
of our inner orientation is the essence of purification. The next verse (09.28)
assures that those who connect with him thus will gradually become free from
karmic bondage and attain the supreme liberation: loving union with him. Thus,
relating with Krishna requires purity and also kindles purity. Whatever the
state of our heart, connecting with him by offering him whatever we can is the
path of supreme auspiciousness.
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