SB 3.29.24

There are sixty-four different kinds of prescription for worshipping the Deity in the temple, and they are called herein uccava, uccava..., uccavacair dravyaiḥ, uchava chair dravyai (u-c-h, c-h-a-v-a c-h-a-i-r; dravyai, d-r-a-v-y-a-i) uccavacair dravyaiḥ. For worshiping the Deity in temple, there are many things offered to the Deity, valuable or less valuable. As it is prescribed in the Bhagavad-gita [Bg 9.26] that "A devotee who offers Me even a small flower, a little water, a small fruit, I accept." The real purpose is to exhibit one's loving devotion to the Lord, not the goods. If one has not developed that loving devotion to the Lord and simply superficially he arranges to offer many kinds of foodstuff, fruits, flowers gorgeously but if he has no devotion, real devotion of love towards the Lord, the Lord does not accept such things. We cannot bribe the Personality of Godhead. He is so great that our bribing to the Lord has no value. Neither He has got any scarcity. He is full in Himself, what we can offer Him? Everything is produced by Him. The only thing is that we offer to show our love and gratitude to the Lord.

So this gratitude and love for God can be exhibited by a pure devotee who knows very well that the Lord lives in every living entity. As such, the temple worship means distribution of prasadam. Not that you create one temple in your private apartment or private room and you offer something to the Lord and then you eat. Of course, that is better than such persons who simply cook foodstuff and eat without understanding the relationship with the Supreme Lord; they are just like animals. But the devotee who wants to elevate himself to the higher level of understanding must know that the presence of the Lord is there in every living entity. And, as it is stated in the previous verse, that one should be compassionate to other living entities. A devotee should be worshipful to the Lord, friendly to persons who are on the same level, and must be compassionate to the ignorant. So one's compassion to the living entities ignorant has to be exhibited by distribution of prasadam. Therefore, distribution of prasadam to the ignorant mass of people is essential for persons who offer many things to the Personality of Godhead.

Really love and devotion is accepted by the Lord. As if many valuable foodstuff be presented to a person and if the person is not hungry, all such things becomes useless for him. Similarly, we may offer many valuable things to the Deity, but if we have no real sense of devotion, real sense of Lord's presence everywhere, that means we are lacking in devotional service; and in such state of ignorance, we cannot offer anything for being accepted by the Lord.