Bg 4.30
apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati
sarve ’py ete yajña-vido yajña-kṣapita-kalmaṣāḥ
Bg 4.31
yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo yānti brahma sanātanam
nāyaṁ loko ’sty ayajñasya kuto ’nyaḥ kuru-sattama
Translation:
30. Others, with well-regulated diet, offer vital-airs in the Vital-Air. All these are knowers of sacrifice, whose sins are destroyed by sacrifice.
31. The eaters of the nectar --- remnant of the sacrifice --- go to the Eternal BRAHMAN. Even this world is not for the non-performer of sacrifice; how then the other (world) , O best of the Kurus?
Commentary Excerpts:
There are some who, through systematic regulation of their diet, come to gain a complete mastery over themselves and their appetites and passions. Dieting is not at all a new technique in India. The ancient Rishis not only knew the vitamin-contents and the caloric-values of the various food materials, but also prescribed very scientific combinations of the available vegetables and cereals to suit the temperament, function, and duties of persons belonging to different levels of society. Not only this; they so well perfected their knowledge that they even showed how, through regulated dieting, a man's character and behaviour, and ultimately his very cultural quality, can be purified and raised.
The verse adds that all these "KNOWERS OF Yajna," meaning all those who know "the art of living these techniques," when they practise them in a spirit of self-dedication and selfless enthusiasm, can fully come to profit by them. These methods and techniques do not promise that they will, of themselves, guide us or lead us to the Supreme. It is promised that all those who practise all, or a few, or even one of them for a sufficiently long period, can become "PURIFIED OF THEIR SINS."
It is these sinful vasanas that make the ego act like an animal and force it to commit low and vicious criminalities. The above-mentioned practices not only wipe clean the existing wrong-vasanas but cut out in their place new-channels-of-thoughts, more constructive and evolutionary in their very nature.
Thus, it must be carefully noted that all practices, physical, mental, or intellectual, that are generally known as divine and religious, are, without exception, only techniques by which the mind-and-intellect equipment gets adjusted for greater and more effective self-application in meditation. Meditation is the "path" in which the ego learns to withdraw its false evaluations of itself in particular, and of life in general, and comes to the final experience of its own divine nature. We often find sincere seekers getting so extremely attached to their own "path" of practice that they constantly argue about it among themselves. Therefore, Arjuna has been instructed here that all "paths," however noble and great they may be, are all but means, and not an end in themselves.
EATING THE SACRED REMNANT OF THE Yajna --- In the ancient ritualism of fire-sacrifices, things that were 'left over' in the pot from which the offerings were made, were called the "sacred remains," and they were considered by the devotees as divinely potent-remnants from the Lord's own plates. This was generally eaten by the devotees with great reverence, and it was considered that, thereby their minds would get purified.
In the metaphor used here, when we try to find its corresponding implication in the subjective world, we must understand "the remnant that is left over" to mean "the result of the above-mentioned twelve types of Yajnas." The result of any one of the above 'Yajnas' is, as we know, a greater amount of self-control and the consequent inner integration of the individual personality. Those who have gained this have prepared themselves for the greatest vocation in life called 'intense meditation.'
Such an integrated man can gain a greater inner poise in his meditation through which he can easily come to experience the Infinite and the Eternal, indicated by the term Brahman. The second line of the verse contains a beautiful generalisation which clinches the main idea, that self-development and inner growth cannot be had without investing continuous and sincere self-effort. Inaction can never bring about any profit even in this world, in any field whatsoever. Without self-dedicated and selfless activity, no great and enduring profit can be achieved in this world, and therefore, Krishna exclaims: "How could a seeker hope to achieve the Highest without any conscious effort at gaining it?"
Two doubts can arise in the minds of ruthlessly intelligent students. It may be doubted: "Can all these different 'paths' lead us to one and the same goal, or do they lead to different goals?" It may also be doubted: "Are these not mere intellectual theories propounded by Krishna himself as an original contribution to Hindu thought?"
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati
sarve ’py ete yajña-vido yajña-kṣapita-kalmaṣāḥ
Bg 4.31
yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo yānti brahma sanātanam
nāyaṁ loko ’sty ayajñasya kuto ’nyaḥ kuru-sattama
Translation:
30. Others, with well-regulated diet, offer vital-airs in the Vital-Air. All these are knowers of sacrifice, whose sins are destroyed by sacrifice.
31. The eaters of the nectar --- remnant of the sacrifice --- go to the Eternal BRAHMAN. Even this world is not for the non-performer of sacrifice; how then the other (world) , O best of the Kurus?
Commentary Excerpts:
There are some who, through systematic regulation of their diet, come to gain a complete mastery over themselves and their appetites and passions. Dieting is not at all a new technique in India. The ancient Rishis not only knew the vitamin-contents and the caloric-values of the various food materials, but also prescribed very scientific combinations of the available vegetables and cereals to suit the temperament, function, and duties of persons belonging to different levels of society. Not only this; they so well perfected their knowledge that they even showed how, through regulated dieting, a man's character and behaviour, and ultimately his very cultural quality, can be purified and raised.
The verse adds that all these "KNOWERS OF Yajna," meaning all those who know "the art of living these techniques," when they practise them in a spirit of self-dedication and selfless enthusiasm, can fully come to profit by them. These methods and techniques do not promise that they will, of themselves, guide us or lead us to the Supreme. It is promised that all those who practise all, or a few, or even one of them for a sufficiently long period, can become "PURIFIED OF THEIR SINS."
It is these sinful vasanas that make the ego act like an animal and force it to commit low and vicious criminalities. The above-mentioned practices not only wipe clean the existing wrong-vasanas but cut out in their place new-channels-of-thoughts, more constructive and evolutionary in their very nature.
Thus, it must be carefully noted that all practices, physical, mental, or intellectual, that are generally known as divine and religious, are, without exception, only techniques by which the mind-and-intellect equipment gets adjusted for greater and more effective self-application in meditation. Meditation is the "path" in which the ego learns to withdraw its false evaluations of itself in particular, and of life in general, and comes to the final experience of its own divine nature. We often find sincere seekers getting so extremely attached to their own "path" of practice that they constantly argue about it among themselves. Therefore, Arjuna has been instructed here that all "paths," however noble and great they may be, are all but means, and not an end in themselves.
EATING THE SACRED REMNANT OF THE Yajna --- In the ancient ritualism of fire-sacrifices, things that were 'left over' in the pot from which the offerings were made, were called the "sacred remains," and they were considered by the devotees as divinely potent-remnants from the Lord's own plates. This was generally eaten by the devotees with great reverence, and it was considered that, thereby their minds would get purified.
In the metaphor used here, when we try to find its corresponding implication in the subjective world, we must understand "the remnant that is left over" to mean "the result of the above-mentioned twelve types of Yajnas." The result of any one of the above 'Yajnas' is, as we know, a greater amount of self-control and the consequent inner integration of the individual personality. Those who have gained this have prepared themselves for the greatest vocation in life called 'intense meditation.'
Such an integrated man can gain a greater inner poise in his meditation through which he can easily come to experience the Infinite and the Eternal, indicated by the term Brahman. The second line of the verse contains a beautiful generalisation which clinches the main idea, that self-development and inner growth cannot be had without investing continuous and sincere self-effort. Inaction can never bring about any profit even in this world, in any field whatsoever. Without self-dedicated and selfless activity, no great and enduring profit can be achieved in this world, and therefore, Krishna exclaims: "How could a seeker hope to achieve the Highest without any conscious effort at gaining it?"
Two doubts can arise in the minds of ruthlessly intelligent students. It may be doubted: "Can all these different 'paths' lead us to one and the same goal, or do they lead to different goals?" It may also be doubted: "Are these not mere intellectual theories propounded by Krishna himself as an original contribution to Hindu thought?"
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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