What Can We Offer Him?

Vidura couldn’t believe his eyes! His joy knew no bounds! 

Krishna, the Lord Himself, had come to Vidura’s hut! 

After finishing His task as ‘Pandava-doota’ – the messenger from the Pandavas, seeking to avert war, Krishna had rejected the invitations of everyone right from the young Duryodhana to the grandsire Bheeshma. He had chosen to come to his, Vidura’s humble abode!

Ushering in Krishna, Vidura ran to ready the asana for the Lord to sit. Krishna looked on in amusement as Vidura kept on critically examining the seat, blocking Him from actually sitting down.

“You seem to be searching for something, Vidura?” He smiled.

“Yes, my Lord! After having served under Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana for all these years, I’m worried that their habits may have rubbed off on me. Who knows if I may have placed a pin or a needle in this chair to hurt you?” sighed Vidura as he shamefully remembered how just a few hours ago, Duryodhana’s plans to capture Krishna had been foiled by the Omniscient Lord.

Finally, Vidura let the Lord sit down. Kneeling in front of Krishna, he picked up a banana from the fruit bowl on the side table, to offer it to the Lord. Lost in this magical moment of being in the Lord’s presence and having the rare opportunity of serving Him, Vidura began peeling the fruit to offer to the Lord.

The Lord too happily accepted and ate what Vidura offered Him, a sweet smile playing on His lips all the time.

“What are you doing?” came the shocked voice of Vidura’s wife, jarring him out of his happy contemplation of Krishna’s divine face.

“Why, I’m offering fruits to the Lord,” he turned to say to his wife, wondering why she was asking such a foolish question.

“Just look at what you have offered Him,” she whispered.

Image courtesy:Chinnajeeyar.org

Lying in a pile on the floor were all the fruits Vidura had discarded even as he had lovingly offered the banana peels to the Lord!

Vidura was aghast! “Oh, what a sin I have committed! How did I come to err like this? O Lord, please forgive me. I don’t know what came over me to commit such a sacrilege,” cried Vidura.

Now he picked up the next banana carefully, peeled it and made sure he was handing over the fruit and not the peel to the Lord.

“Enough, Vidura! I can’t eat any more. I’m full,” exclaimed Krishna.

“But I only gave You the peels,” cried Vidura, ashamed of his crime.

“How innocent you are Vidura!” declared the Lord. “I’m the One who ate the entire universe at the time of pralaya (the great deluge). Do you think you can appease my hunger by giving me fruits or their peels? Nay – it’s your bhakti, your sincere heartfelt devotion that has filled my hungry stomach!”

In the Bhagavad Geeta (9.26), the Lord says

“पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति |
तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मन: ||”

patraṁ puṣhpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayachchhati
tadahaṁ bhaktyupahṛitam aśhnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

"If one offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, 

a fruit, or even water, 

I delightfully partake of that item 

offered with love 

by My devotee in pure consciousness."

The Lord is the Prabhu – the master and owner of all in the Universe. Is there anything He doesn’t have? 

Nothing! 

Except perhaps one thing – the ability to offer bhakti to Himself!

That, then, is probably the only edge we have – we can offer Him our whole-hearted, single-minded devotion. 

And that is exactly why the Lord cherished the banana peels offered by the devout Vidura.

Can we start working to develop the devotion of Vidura?