Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

I will tell you the story of a very rich merchant.

In India there is a place called Puri. There is a temple for Lord Krishna in the form of Jagannath. It is a rather funny aspect of Krishna. Every year there is a big festival where they bring the deities out and bring them on the street. There are millions of people. So even the king of the time will go and clean the street. All the people will go and clean the street very nicely to bring the chariot of the Lord. It so happened that one day a very rich merchant came to Jagannath and seeing the Lord together with his brother Balaram and sister Subdra, he said to himself, “This is just a mere wood statue with big eyes and a big smile. It's just a black statue." So he said very proudly, “I will show myself, my wealth, I will give a hundred thousand rupees.” So he went to the priest and said, “Priest I will donate 100.000 rupees to the temple to feed the Lord. Under one condition, that you spend all your money on the food.

The priest wondered for a while how to spend the 100.000 rupees on food. "Even if I use the best ghee, the best ingredients to make the Prasad for the Lord, i could not finish. So all the priests gathered and started to discuss how they could finish 100.000 rupees for the prasad of the Lord. Then the high priest came to a conclusion, saying, “Okay, we can’t take any decision. Let Lord Jagannath Himself, let Krishna Himself take the decision." Then they went to the merchant and said: " Listen we have not come to a conclusion, but we will let the Lord Himself decide which kind of prasad he would like to have. So meanwhile please stay with us, till the Lord Himself tells us which kind of Prasad He wants." Three days passed After three days the high priest had a dream. In the dream Lord Jagannath appeared to him and said, “Tell this merchant that I am very happy that he is offering me the prasad ”. Of course the Lord knows the pride and the pride which was inside the merchant, the way he was offering the prasad to Him.

So the priest went to the merchant and said, “Merchant, the Lord has come in my dream and talked about the prasad.” The merchant said, “Yes tell me,” and he proudly said “The Lord has demanded little leaves with some paste inside."

Thus the king said, “What He wants? Only these leaves, but this is nothing.” But the priest said, “Wait I am not finished. The Lord has asked that inside these betel leaves should be smeared the finest grinded pearl powder.” And the king said, “Still this is nothing for me.” And the priest said, “Yes, but the Lord said also another thing. This pearl that you will use for grinding should not be just a normal ordinary pearl. It has to be a pearl which comes from the forehead of an elephant, from under the skin of the forehead of the elephant.”

So the proud and arrogant merchant started thinking: Yes, but how many elephants do I have to buy to be able to get just one pearl? And here I am offering a hundred thousands, but it will cost more than that. He realised that he can offer to Lord Jagannath what He had asked. for At that moment he threw his very expensive turban at the Lord, at the feet of Jagannath, kneeled down and said to the Lord, “Please forgive me. Out of pride I tried to bribe you, but I know I can’t give you anything which is in the outside. So now I offer you my heart.” And he changed completely. Few days later the Lord appeared to him in his dream and said, “I’m very pleased with your heart that is the only thing that I want. A heart which is full of love and devotion.” It is very simple and easy to offer your heart to God. So whenever, we think that we have to offer something to the Lord first, inside of you offer your heart to Him. “Lord I offer you my heart, it is not mine anymore, it is Yours. And the way you love makes me love the same way. Makes me realise this Divine Love.” Spirituality is about a relationship to God. And this love relationship with the Divine will make you realize.