Bhagavad Gita 9.26
पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति | तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः ||
patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati | tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ ||
Translation
A leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water, if a person offers to me with devotion, that offering of devotion from a pure-souled one I accept.
Reflection
What ordinary offering have you been withholding for being too small?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Nine
The chapter's center of gravity. A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water. Four things any human being has access to. Offered with devotion by one whose mind is collected, Krishna accepts the offering. The verse dismantles the economy of expensive ritual in a single line. The cost of the substance is not what carries the offering. The bhakti is what carries it, and the prayata-atma, the gathered self, on the offering side. The leaf is not a metaphor. The verse means an actual leaf. The simplicity is real. The poorest worshipper has full access to the practice the chapter has been describing. This is the verse that justifies the early claim that the path is susukham kartum, easy to perform.