Gita 03.13 – See God not just as the provider of food but also as its enjoyer.mp3 Gita 11.37 kasmac ca te nameran mahatman .mp3

Universal government, thank you Bhagavad Gita 3.13 this is one of the more frequently quoted verses from the Gita it is used to convey the importance of offering food let's understand what it means in its context and how it applies in today's context so this section of the Bhagavad Gita is talking about the terrestrial celestial cooperation that underlies existence so when we live in a government the government provides us utilities and we provide taxes similarly when we live in the universe the universe is universal government and we provide taxes in the form of our our actions in terms of the sacrifices that we do so Krishna now the idea that we are dependent on nature is something which is at one level undeniably and undeniably obvious we need air, we need water, we need heat, light at one time scientists tried to quantify this and they found that this is more than a decade ago in the science magazine researchers put together humanities built to nature we take water we take fruits, we take lumber and we take so many resources from nature and it was astronomical the budget if we had to pay anything to nature it would be just no country would be able to manage to pay the budget and that did not even count the charge we would have had to pay if we had to pay for energy in the form of sunlight just the sunlight bill for one state like Oklahoma in America would be more than the much much more than the annual budget of America so in a materialistic monetized culture often it is when things are attempted to be monetized then the gravity of the reality becomes evident at times so we are factually dependent on nature and we may say that that exercise of monetizing our dependence on nature is just a fanciful exercise but it isn't because nature doesn't work on its own nature works under a supreme being now so we when we work here and try to gain things and enjoy those things we eat, we drink and when we drink water we eat food we need this and we have to use it we cannot live without them and it is not that nature doesn't want to give it to them it is to us but we need to recognize our dependence acknowledge our dependence and that we do by doing sacrifices yajna shishta asina santo santo, the saintly people they accept yajna shishta asina yajna is sacrifice, shishta is the remnants so they accept the remnants of the sacrifice asina, accept yajna shishta asina santo mucchan te sarva kilbishai kilbisha is contamination sinful reactions mucchan te, they are freed from all contaminations on the other hand bhunjate te tvagham papa bhunjate te those who enjoy actually agham papa so they are actually engaging in sin agham papa means the same thing there is action and the consequence so there is sinful action and sinful consequence that comes from that ye pacchan te atmakaranat atmakaranat means for one's own enjoyment here atma doesn't refer to self here atma or self in terms of the soul here atma is used more in terms of the selfishness for one's own interest not considering the higher world with which we are connected one just takes what one wants and enjoys pacchan te pacchan te means to cook and then to eat one who enjoys food for one's own purposes without offering in food that person eats sin so in various cultures throughout the world the bounty of nature is often accepted and celebrated with gratitude towards some higher beings for example the thanksgiving festival although its form may be transmogrified with the killing of the turkey being quite at the centre unfortunately but still originally it was like a harvest festival which was meant to celebrate a bountiful yield of crops in fact govardhan festival also was a harvest festival which was meant to express humanity's gratitude to nature and to divinity for having provided the gifts of nature so essentially the point in either case is that if a person has even some basic level of consciousness awareness and one is living close to nature then that naturally that instinct to thank nature and to thank whatever is one's belief about the forces controlling nature that awakens many tribal cultures also have festivals to celebrate the obtaining of food in the christian tradition also there is a well established practice of grace, grace means that actually before taking meals we thank god and the principle of that is to acknowledge that this food is something which has been gifted to us by god actually when we think about the millions of people who are starving, who are hungry who are malnourished we understand that actually food is vital component of the grace of god manifesting to humanity now by being grateful to god for food we at least which is needed for our existence we begin our our consciousness of god gets rooted on a strong foundation strong in the sense that not that we love god but we understand that there are real gifts which he is giving me on a daily basis several times a day that helps us to remember god now what is the rationale for offering something into fire but here the principle is we sacrifice a portion of what we could have enjoyed for the as an expression of our gratitude to god and then the whole of which a portion has been offered that becomes sanctified that becomes yajna shishta asi now yajna is essentially the principle of sacrifice and that principle of sacrifice can be expressed not just by offering into the fire sacrifice but that can be expressed also through deity worship that can also be expressed through chanting of prayers so that principle is expressed through deity worship when we treat god as a person who is going to be the enjoyer of the food and when we cook the food without tasting it ourselves we offer it to Krishna and his deity form and then take the remnants and such remnants they not only are karma free because Krishna is all pure and because we have offered it to him so it has become purified they are not only not contaminating but they are purifying because they are permeated with contact with Krishna they are permeated with Krishna's mercy and such food will take us closer and closer to Krishna so here the principle that we talked about of offering food to god of acknowledging god's role in our food provision which is done in various various cultures that is that expression of gratitude has in a spiritually evolved sense manifested in the Vedic culture as the principle of offering so we don't just treat god as the provider of food but also as the enjoyer of food so this is a much richer personal vision of god so instead of just thinking that oh god thank you for providing me this food think oh god I am cooking this food for you you are a person and you are the enjoyer and I cook for your pleasure and after you take I will take your remnants and in that way we very naturally and lovingly subordinate ourselves to god and thus become bound in love with him so that is the profound devotional essence with which we can see the principle of yajna so we don't see this simply as a ritual in which something is offered in a fire but as a way in which we can use our culinary skills and our prayerful attitude to make a wonderful offering for Krishna and see him as the enjoyer of the food and us as his loving servants who accept his remnants thank you.