Text 18
bhūry apy abhaktopāhṛtaṁ
na me toṣāya kalpate
gandho dhūpaḥ sumanaso
dīpo ’nnādyaṁ ca kiṁ punaḥ
bhūri — opulent; api — even; abhakta — by a nondevotee; upāhṛtam — offered; na — does not; me — My; toṣāya — satisfaction; kalpate — create; gandhaḥ — fragrance; dhūpaḥ — incense; sumanasaḥ — flowers; dīpaḥ — lamps; anna-ādyam — foodstuffs; ca — and; kim punaḥ — what to speak of.
Even very opulent presentations do not satisfy Me if they are offered by nondevotees. But I am pleased by any insignificant offering made by My loving devotees, and I am certainly most pleased when nice presentations of fragrant oil, incense, flowers and palatable foods are offered with love.
The Lord has stated in the previous verse that even a little water offered with love and devotion gives Him great pleasure. Therefore the words kiṁ punaḥ indicate the Lord’s complete happiness when a suitably opulent offering is made with love and devotion. But an opulent offering made by a nondevotee cannot please the Lord. As Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains, the rules and regulations concerning Deity worship and the listing of offenses against the Deities are all meant for helping one avoid precisely this kind of disrespectful or neglectful attitude toward the Personality of Godhead in His Deity form. In fact, all offenses against the Deity are based upon irreverence and disregard for the Lord’s position as master, and thus upon disobedience to His orders. Since one must worship the Deity with reverence, one should offer opulent presentations to the Deity with love, for such presentations both enhance the respectfulness of the worshiper and help him avoid offenses in his worship.