Gita Acharan

Y ajna symbolises sacrifice or selfless actions. In this context, Krishna says, “Some yogis perform sacrifices to gods; others perform sacrifice by offering sacrifice itself in the fire of Brahma (Supreme God)” (4.25). For someone living without awareness, living is just gathering, preserving and feeling proud of possessions. The next stage of living is sacrificing things, thoughts and feelings. It’s like sacrificing the seeds of ahankaar (I am a doer) into the fire rather than letting them multiply on the fertile soil of the mind. The third stage is transcending even the act of sacrifice, realizing that all is Brahma . It is the sacrifice of ahankaar itself, the subtle sense of “I am the doer” that survives even in sacrifice. It can be said that the mind-oriented karma yogi keeps looking for action and performing sacrifice is the path for him. The intellect-oriented jnana yogi seeks pure awareness, and he sacrifices the sacrifice itself. While the former is seque...

Water is essential for life on earth and Krishna uses rain as an example (3.14) to explain selfless actions. Basically, rain is a part of a cycle where water evaporates because of heat, forming clouds thereafter. Given the right conditions, it comes back down as rain.  This process involves selfless actions and Krishna names them ' yagna '. Oceans let the water evaporate to form clouds and clouds sacrifice themselves to turn into rain. Both these actions are selfless actions - yagna .  Krishna indicates that selfless action of yagna holds the supreme reality or supreme power (3.15). In the beginning, using this power the creator created  (3.10) and advised everyone to use it to further themselves (3.11). This is nothing but aligning ourselves with the supreme reality to tap its power through selfless action of yagna .  In this interconnected process of rain, if clouds were to feel proud and hoard water, then the cycle would collapse. Krishna calls such h...