Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.80.14
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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yācitvā
—
begging
Gerund of √yāc. The wife had to beg — they did not even own the rice she would tie into the cloth. Gauḍīyas note: Kṛṣṇa receives an offering that was itself a gift from neighboring brāhmaṇas. The community of Vaiṣṇavas is in the bundle.
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muṣṭīn
—
fistfuls
Accusative plural of muṣṭi. Tiny units — four fistfuls. The Bhāgavatam measures with painful precision. The smallness is the point: bhakti's value is independent of bulk.
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pṛthuka - taṇḍulān
—
flat rice
Compound: pṛthuka (flattened) + taṇḍula (rice grain). The famous chipped rice (poha) — humble Indian provision. In Vaiṣṇava memory pṛthuka has become synonymous with the very principle of small offerings cherished by the Lord.
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caila
—
of cloth
Echoes verse 7's ku-cailasya — the same poor cloth-field; now a torn piece of it wraps the offering. The bundle is, materially, of a piece with Sudāmā's clothing — poverty wrapping poverty.
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khaṇḍena
—
with a ripped piece
Instrumental of khaṇḍa — a torn fragment. Not even an intact cloth could be spared. Gauḍīyas note this detail: the wife uses what she has, refuses to pretend, and Kṛṣṇa loves it.
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upāyanam
—
gift
Same word as v.12-13 — picked up here as fulfillment of the decision. The form is preserved (one must bring something); the content is whatever can be brought.
She begged chipped rice from brāhmaṇas. She got four handfuls, since she did not have a goal concerning more or less quantity.
She begged from neighboring brāhmaṇas because they were absorbed in the four goals of life for four types of liberation (caturaḥ). Or they lived in the four directions and she begged a handful of rice from each. She obtained flat rice because that is what the wives of the brāhmaṇas gave her or because she was too weak from hunger to thresh the rice properly. She bound it up in a worn out piece of cloth. She offered it to her husband as a gift so he would keep it tightly in his cloth. All this was done out of extreme poverty, not out of intention to display their destitute situation to the Lord.
- What small offering, simple and a little embarrassing, could I bring the Lord today?
- Where am I refusing to bring my torn-cloth gift because it doesn't look grand enough?
Four small fistfuls of broken rice, tied in a torn rag — the offering measures the offerer, not the recipient. To Kṛṣṇa, who owns Lakṣmī, the bundle is priceless because it is what they had.
Kṛṣṇa, talking with Vidura in his hut, ate the banana peels Vidura offered while leaving the fruit aside — so absorbed in His friend that He did not notice which was which (Mahābhārata). When Vidura's wife pointed it out, the Lord laughed and said the peels had tasted sweeter than any palace feast.
Same logic as Sudāmā's pṛthuka: Kṛṣṇa is fed by the relationship, not the food.
Some traditions remember that when Kṛṣṇa visited, Vidura's wife was so absorbed she fed Him without realizing what she was doing — a parallel to Sudāmā's wife begging four fistfuls from neighbors.
Gauḍīyas pair the two wives: each provides what the husband could not, each enables the bhakta's offering. The 'small token' tradition runs through both.
My note
Source: vedabase.io