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Krishna Wants Your Love And Devotion

Shrila Prabhupada explains the difference between pure devotional service and tinged service in the following quote taken from a book “Renunciation Through Wisdom”


Radha-Krishna deity surrounded by opulent decorations

Lord Krishna never accepts any offering bereft of love and devotion. A person who is not hungry cannot suddenly develop an appetite, even if he is given delectable food. Similarly, the Lord has no attraction for opulent offerings made without love and devotion. We have already discussed that unauthorized worship of the Supreme Lord stems from the absence of devotion and the presence of material desire.


One who is full of devotion aims to satisfy the Supreme Lord's senses, while one who is full of material desire aims to gratify his own senses. Those who carry in their hearts the desire to gratify themselves but make a show of serving the Supreme Lord will never experience the joys of being a real devotee. The scriptures have aptly described them as mercenaries. Devotion's prime objective is the attainment of God.


Therefore, one must offer the Lord everything in one's possession, including the results of karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, mystic yoga, austerity, meditation, and so on. This perfect process of surrender will lead to the attainment of God. Thus, Lord Krishna openly proclaims in the Bhagavad-gita (9.27),

yat karosi yad asnasi

yaj juhosi dadasi yat

yat tapasyasi kaunteya

tat kurusva mad-arpanam


“Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerity you perform-do that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to Me.”


A plate of mixed fruit crumble, with cream, fruits and a cup of juice.

If a person follows this injunction and, with love, offers the Lord everything he has - wife, house, family, intelligence, learning, business, religiosity, labor, food, water, whatever is required to maintain the body, and even lust, greed, and anger - then the Lord accepts these offerings and completely satisfies the offerer. And at the time of death the Lord takes such a surrendered soul to His Supreme abode. The demigods are empowered to accept only certain types of offerings, whereas Lord Krishna can accept the karma-phala, or fruitive results, of everyone. The Supreme Lord alone is powerful enough to accept conflicting fruitive results and moods of worship. This indicates Krishna's supreme lordship and absolute position. It is unlikely that all of humanity will be able to understand the science of pure devotional service, yet everyone always has the ability to attain the Lord's lotus feet, even in the face of striking odds. Therefore the best course is to offer everything to the Supreme Lord.

(RTW 2.11: Offering a Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, or a Little Water.)






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