Viśiṣṭādvaita

On this reading the devotee's offering springs from a love so intense that he cannot hold himself up without giving; the gift is his very sustenance, with no other purpose than the giving itself. What is most striking is the Lord's side of the exchange. Though He is the Lord of all, of true resolve, whose every desire is already attained, the host of countless auspicious qualities, and though He abides in His own natural, limitless bliss, He nonetheless eats the small offering as though He had gained something dear beyond all longing. The Mokshadharma is cited: whatever acts the single-minded perform, the God Himself receives with His own head. From this Krishna draws the lesson that Arjuna too should become such a knower, bowed under the weight of devotion, and do even his obligatory and occasional duties in this offering-spirit.

Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika

Bhakti

This school reads the grammar tightly to show that the Lord eats only from His own devotee. The instrumental 'with devotion' is taken as accompaniment, so the verse means 'My devotee, accompanied by devotion, offers.' By this it is intimated that what a non-devotee offers with passing, momentary devotion the Lord does not eat at all. 'Of pure self' is read two ways: as bodily purity, so that those in states like menstruation are excluded; or, more deeply, as a pure inner faculty, which belongs to no one but the devotee. The mark of such purity is the inability to leave the Lord's feet; even when lust or anger appear in such a one, they are powerless, like a serpent whose fangs have been drawn. One devotional voice adds that the offering should be performed as already offered, not first done and then dedicated, citing Prahlada. Another pours out the warmth at length: the Lord clasps the fruit in both hands and swallows it stalk and all, swallows even a dry leaf overlaid with the milk and honey of love like a hungry man gulping nectar, and a single drop of devoted water builds Him temples grander than Vaikuntha.

Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar

Śuddhādvaita

Here the verse is the very center of the path of grace (pushti-marga). The Lord, the Supreme Self of vast majesty, is not made content by a great display of services, for what use is a throne to one whose throne is Garuda. Contentment comes only by the bhava, the inner feeling, placed in the offering. The leaf is no leaf to Him; it is the love of the offerer accepted in His own form. So the smallest devotee can set the highest bond upon the Lord, and the Lord, of His own grace, takes that bond and accepts the offering as His very food. One voice adds that by saying 'I eat' it is signified that, having accepted, the Lord goes on to supply every kind of equipment fit for the devotee's further service and enjoyment, just as for Sudama's sake He accepted the handful of beaten rice and then gave back His own wealth.

Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama

Dvaita

This school adds a careful caution against misreading the open invitation. The 'leaf and the like' does not mean any leaf whatsoever offered however one pleases; an unprescribed offering is named a fault in the Varaha and other texts. The point is rather that the Lord is satisfied by devotion alone, and that whatever is offered must indeed be offered to Him. The fear being answered is that, because of His greatness, the weak might think they cannot worship Him; the verse removes that fear. Supporting scriptures are cited: He loves His devotees and is bowed to by all the worlds (Bharata), and one-pointed devotion to Govinda with the seeing of the Self everywhere is the supreme self-interest of a man (Bhagavata 7.7.55).

Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha

Advaita Vedānta

These commentators read the verse chiefly as establishing the supreme ease of the Lord's worship over against the costly rites of other deities. One develops a notable line: since the whole world has been earned by the Lord alone, every substance is already His; so the devotee who offers a leaf is only offering the Lord's own back to Him, like a servant returning his master's property. The acceptance is explained through scripture's saying that the gods do not literally eat or drink but are satisfied by merely beholding the nectar, so the Lord's 'eating' signifies an excess of love and satisfaction. Another notes that He eats the devotee's leaf the way a child eats the leaf or flower its mother gives, its sense of edible and inedible bound up in love. The conclusion is the same: devotion alone is the cause of His satisfaction, so let one abandon other deities and worship Him alone.

Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri

Modern

The modern voices keep the plain devotional sense and draw out its everyday force. One frames it through a king to whom all the objects of the state already belong, who is yet highly pleased when his servants offer him even a little with devotion; build a golden temple not of gold but in your heart. Another places the verse against the Mimamsa ritual path, where yajnas demand much money, and marks this as the central difference of the path of devotion: the Lord craves no material, only devotion, and is satisfied even with the mental material of worship offered with a pure mind. A third reads it through the Lord present in every being, so that the service we give in devotion is accepted by the Lord within. A fourth dwells on the loss of self-consciousness in love: when the devotee's offering-feeling rises high he forgets himself, and the Lord, drunk on that love, forgets Himself too, eating banana peels as if they were the kernels, for He is the one who receives the feeling and not the substance.

Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Mahatma Gandhi · Swami Ramsukhdas