Sacrifice & Service

Yajña and dāna — offering and giving — 73 verses, starred ones first.

4.34 ★ Approach the teacher with prostration, inquiry, and service. The knowers of truth will instruct you in jñāna.
5.29 ★ Knowing Me as the enjoyer of all sacrifice and austerity, Great Lord of all worlds, Friend of all beings — peace comes.
9.27 ★ Whatever you do, eat, offer, give, or practise as austerity — do it all as mad-arpaṇam, an offering to Me.
12.13 ★ Not hating, friendly, compassionate, without 'mine' or 'I', equal in pain and joy, forgiving — the dear devotee!
3.16 ☆ Whoever does not turn the cosmic wheel of giving — living only for sense-pleasure — lives in vain.
4.24 ☆ Instrument, offering, fire, act, destination — all Brahman. One absorbed in Brahman-action reaches Brahman alone.
6.33 ☆ O Madhusūdana — I see no stable foundation for this yoga: the mind's restlessness defeats all steadiness.
7.30 ☆ Those who know Me as Adhibhūta, Adhidaiva, and Adhiyajña — they know Me even at death, with unified minds.
8.2 ☆ Who is Adhiyajña in this body, and how are You known at the time of death, O destroyer of Madhu?
8.3 ☆ Brahman is the Imperishable; Adhyātma is its presence in each body; Karma is the cosmic offering sustaining all beings.
16.1 ☆ Daivī wealth begins: abhaya, sattva-śuddhi, jñāna-yoga, dāna, dama, yajña, svādhyāya, tapa, ārjava.
17.23 ☆ OṀ Tat Sat: triple name of Brahman — by which brāhmaṇas, Vedas, and yajñas were ordained in the beginning.
17.28 ☆ Whatever is sacrificed, given, done, or tapas practiced without śraddhā — that is asat: naught here or hereafter.
1.9 Men are ready to die 'for my sake' — and Duryodhana names this fact without apparent weight.
1.34 I would rather be killed than kill them — a statement of love that goes beyond self-preservation.
1.45 Better to die with clean hands than to win with blood on them.
3.9 Action done as an offering (yajna) does not bind. All other action creates bondage. Do your work as offering.
3.10 At creation, the Creator embedded yajna into existence itself — give and the cosmos gives back.
3.11 Nourish the cosmic forces and they nourish you back. Mutual giving is the path to the highest good.
3.12 Enjoy the gifts of existence without giving back — the Gita calls that theft. Participate, don't just consume.
3.13 Give first, then receive — freed from all impurity. Cook only for yourself — you eat your own sin.
3.14 Action → yajna → rain → food → all beings. Human right-action sustains the entire chain of life.
3.15 Action arises from Brahman, Brahman from the Imperishable. The all-pervading ultimate is present in every act of yajna.
4.23 For the liberated one — attachment gone, mind settled in knowledge, acting for yajna — all karma completely dissolves.
4.25 Some offer to the gods as yajna. Others offer yajna itself into the fire of Brahman — the practice becomes the offering.
4.26 Some offer the senses into restraint's fire. Others offer sense-objects into the senses' fire. Both are valid yajna.
4.27 All sense-actions, all vital-breath actions — offered into the fire of self-mastery yoga, kindled by knowledge.
4.28 Wealth, austerity, yoga, self-study, knowledge — all valid yajna for ascetics with sharpened vows.
4.29 Offering prāṇa into apāna, apāna into prāṇa — the breath itself becomes yajna for those devoted to prāṇāyāma.
4.30 Regulated food, prāṇas offered into prāṇas — ALL these are knowers of yajna; yajna destroys all their impurities.
4.31 Those who eat yajna's remnants reach eternal Brahman. Without offering, not even this world is theirs.
4.32 Many forms of yajna spread through Brahman's mouth — all born of action. Knowing this, you will be freed.
4.33 Knowledge-yajna surpasses all material sacrifice. Every action without exception culminates in knowledge.
5.25 Seers with sins destroyed, doubts cut, self-controlled, devoted to all beings' welfare — they attain brahma-nirvāṇa.
8.4 Adhibhūta is perishable nature; Adhidaiva is the Puruṣa; Adhiyajña — I Myself — am the sacrifice in this body.
8.28 Transcending Vedic merit, sacrifice, austerity, and charity — the yogi knowing this reaches the primordial Supreme.
9.15 Others worship Me as one, as distinct, as manifold — through the jñāna-yajña of knowing the All-form.
9.16 I am the Vedic ritual, sacrifice, ancestral offering, herb, mantra, oblation, fire, and the offering made.
9.24 I am the enjoyer and Lord of all sacrifices — but they do not know Me in truth, and so they fall.
10.5 Non-injury, equanimity, contentment, austerity, charity, fame and infamy — these varied states arise from Me alone.
10.18 Tell me again in full of Your yoga and vibhūtis, O Janārdana — I am never sated hearing Your nectar-speech.
10.25 Among great sages I am Bhṛgu; among words, OM; among yajñas, japa; among immovable heights, the Himālaya.
11.8 Your natural eyes cannot see Me — I give you the divine eye; behold My supreme Yoga-power.
11.48 Not by Vedas, sacrifice, gifts, rituals, or harsh austerities can this form be seen in human worlds — only by you!
11.51 Beholding Your gentle human form, O Janārdana — now I am composed; my mind restored, I have come back to my own nature!
11.53 Not by Vedas, not by austerity, not by gifts, not by sacrifice — can I be seen as you have seen Me. Not by any of these.
14.4 From all wombs all bodies arise — but the great Brahman is the womb and Krishna the seed-giving Father.
16.13 The ego-monologue: 'I gained this today. I'll get that next. This is mine — and more wealth will be mine too.'
16.15 The ego-apex: 'I am rich, well-born — who equals me? I'll sacrifice, give, rejoice.' — all deluded by ajñāna.
16.17 Self-complacent, stubborn, wealth-proud — they perform name-only sacrifices, ostentatiously ignoring śāstric ordinance.
17.1 Arjuna asks: those who perform yajña with sincere śraddhā but without śāstric ordinance — what guṇa is their state?
17.5 Those who practice ghora tapas without śāstric sanction, driven by dambha, ahaṃkāra, kāma and rāga — āsurī tapas.
17.7 Even food is threefold in its appeal to each person; so too yajña, tapas, and dāna. Hear their distinctions.
17.12 Rājasic yajña: performed targeting fruit and for ostentation — know this, O best of Bharatas.
17.13 Tāmasic yajña: against ordinance, no food-sharing, no mantras, no dakṣiṇā, no śraddhā — declared tāmasic.
17.18 Rājasic tapas: done for reception, honour, worship, and show — unstable and transient.
17.20 Sāttvic dāna: given with 'this must be given,' to one expecting no return, at right place, time, and recipient.
17.21 Rājasic dāna: given expecting reciprocity, or eyeing fruit, or reluctantly — held to be rājasic.
17.22 Tāmasic dāna: given at wrong place/time, to unworthy recipients, without respect, with contempt.
17.24 Therefore, Brahman-knowers always begin yajña, dāna, and tapas with 'OṀ' as ordained by scripture.
17.26 Sat means: being/reality, goodness/virtue, and praiseworthy action — three registers of the one word.
17.27 Steadiness in yajña, tapas, and dāna is called Sat; and even supporting action for their sake is Sat.
18.18 Three-fold impulse to action: knowledge, knowable, knower. Three-fold action-structure: organ, act, agent.
18.43 Kṣatriya dharma: bravery, vigor, fortitude, skill, not-fleeing-battle, generosity, lordly bearing — born of svabhāva.
18.44 Vaiśya dharma: agriculture, cattle-care, trade — born of svabhāva. Śūdra dharma: service — born of svabhāva.
18.46 From whom all beings arise, by whom all is pervaded — worshiping THAT through one's own duty, one attains perfection.
18.57 Mentally offering all actions to Me, with Me as highest — resorting to buddhi-yoga, always be mind-in-Me.
18.60 Bound by your svabhāva-born karma, what from delusion you don't wish to do — you will do even helplessly.
18.67 This teaching is never to be given to the non-ascetic, non-devotee, non-service-minded, or one who criticizes Me.
18.68 Whoever teaches this supreme secret among My devotees, with supreme bhakti — comes to Me without doubt.
18.69 No one among humans does dearer service to Me, nor is there another dearer to Me on earth, than the Gita-teacher.
18.70 Whoever studies this sacred dialogue — by him I shall have been worshipped by jñāna-yajña; such is My conviction.
18.71 Even one who only hears this with śraddhā and without malice is liberated and reaches the pure worlds of the righteous.