Bhagavagd Gita - Session 16- Track 1611
daivam evāpare yajñaṁ yoginaḥ paryupāsate |
brahmāgnāv apare yajñaṁ yajñenaivopajuhvati ||25|| (IV)
“Some Yogis perform sacrifices to please the gods, while others offer the self to be sacrificed by the Self into the fire of Brahman that is the Supreme.” And that is the real sacrifice.
There is a further elucidation of various kinds of sacrifices that can be performed with regard to everything that you do:
śrotrādīnīndriyāṇy anye saṁyamāgniśu juhvati |
śabdādīn viṣayān anya indriyāgniṣu juhvati ||26|| (IV)
“Some offer hearing and the other senses into the fire of samyamā…” When you hear and all hearing is nothing but hearing of the Divine: then that is the real yajñā. Mere hearing is yajñā. All your activities of your senses become activities of yajñā. “…others may offer sound and the other objects of senses into the fire of senses.” Even taking objects of senses: you hear music or you produce music, whatever you do if you do it in the sense that, “all this is nothing but brahmaṇ”, it is this Knowledge that makes the difference. Merely hearing itself is only an act, but when you know it is all nothing but brahmaṇ,it is the Knowledge aspect of it that makes it a real yajñā.
sarvāṇīndriyakarmāṇi prāṇakarmāṇi cāpare |
ātmasaṁyamayogāgnau juhvati jñānadīpite ||27|| (IV)
“Some others again offer all functions of their senses and of the actions of prāṇas into the fire of the Yoga of self-restraint kindled by Knowledge.” The important point is: “kindled by Knowledge”.
Dravyayajñāstapoyajñā yogayajñāstathāpare|
svādhyāyajñānayajñāsca yatayaḥ saṁśitavratāḥ ||28|| (IV)
“Some likewise offer as sacrifice their material possessions. Some perform the yajñā of austerity. Some offer the yajñā of svādhyāya, and the yajñā of Knowledge. Some are devoted to the yajñā of Raja Yoga. Some yatis keep severe vows practising the great virtues.”
All forms of actions, in other words, anything and everything that you do, if you do it in the sense that it is all Brahman, offering to Brahman, into the fire of Brahman, by means of Brahman: that is the real yajñā.
apāne juhvati prāṇaṁ prāṇe’pānaṁ tathāpare prāṇāpānagatī ruddhvā prāṇāyāmaparāyaṇāḥ ||29|| (IV)
In the same way if you do Pranayama, whether it is Prana or Apana, breathing or non-breathing, Kumbhaka or Rechaka, or Puraka, whatever it is…“Still others offer Prana unto Apana, others offer Apana unto Prana, while others are engaged on the cessation of Prana and Apana by the Pranayama”.
apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati
sarve’pyete yajñāvido yajñākṣapitakalmaṣāḥ ||30|| (IV)
“Some restricting their food, offer their Pranas unto the Pranas. All these are knowers of sacrifice and have burnt up their sins in the fire of sacrifice.”
Once again it is to be done with the Knowledge.
yajñaśiṣṭāmṛtabhujo yānti brahma sanātanam |
nāyaṁ loko’sty ayajñāsya kuto’nyaḥ kurusattama ||31|| (IV)
“When everything is done as a sacrifice, then there is a remainder; that remainder is the delight of existence.”…the supreme delight, the supreme immortality: yajñāśiṣṭāmṛtabhujo. What remains? There is no fruit of any action. What is the fruit? It is the immortal delight of the Brahman itself. In the ritualistic yajñā it is said that in yajñā, when you have done the ritualistic sacrifice, you give up everything, and you eat only what is left. What is left is your cooked food, whatever other things are distributed away; what is left is only a little. In the 3rd chapter also we were told that one who eats only for himself, one who cooks only for himself is not a Yogi; it is not a yajñā; he is a thief, stena eva (III, 12). That is explained here now, that you sacrifice everything, and what remains is amṛita, is immortality, the delight of existence, the real realisation of the Brahman:
ajñaśiṣṭāmṛtabhujo yānti brahma sanātanam |
nāyaṁ loko’sty ayajñāsya kuto’nyaḥ kurusattama ||31|| (IV)
“One who does not perform sacrifice, for him even this world is not available.” kuto’nyaḥ kurusattama, “What would be available to him apart, even the other world.” What is the question of other world at all, or anything else, even this world is not available to him. Why even talk of anything else.
vaṁ bahuvidhā yajñā vitatā brahmaṇo mukhe |
karmajān viddhi tān sarvān evaṁ jñātvā vimokṣyase ||32|| (IV)
“Thus from the mouth of Brahman all these different types of sacrifices have proceeded. Know them all to be born of Karma. Thus knowing you will become liberated.” You can do no action, you can do no sacrifice without action, but the real Karma is not done without knowing so the two are synthesised. No yajñā is done without action and no yajñā is performed without knowing that this yajñā is Brahman, or Brahman into Brahman. It is only when both are synthesised together, then you become the divine worker.
We have finished 4th chapter, and go to the 5th chapter next time.