Gita 04.26 – The mood of sacrifice spiritualizes both the householder and the renounced orders

Bhagavad Gita 4.26 Krishna is continuing his description of how the principle of yajna pervades a wide variety of activities indeed it can pervade the entire gamut of human activities and here he gives two examples of the pervasion of the principle of yajna so Shrotra and Adi Shrotra is hearing Adi is others Indriyan senses such as the sense used for hearing that is ears Anya so Anya here refers to others so others Adi referred to other senses whereas Anya refers to other people that means first in the previous verse it was described some people worship demigods some people worship impersonal brahman but now it describes some people they perform sacrifice in a different way Sanyama Agnishu Juhuvati so Sanyama is restraint or control so in the fire of self-restraint some people sacrifice their senses Juhuvati and others now Shabda Deen Vishayananya others Shabda Adi Shabda here is sound which refers to sense objects Vishayananya so sense objects such as the sound Indriya Agnishu Juhuvati they offer it into the fire of the senses so some people offer the senses in the fire of the mind or in the fire of self-control and others offer the sense objects in the fire of the senses again this is a very interesting or evocative description wherein Krishna is explaining how actually all of us whatever be our ashram whatever be our situation can participate in the principle of sacrifice so the Acharyas explain that this verse is referring to the two primary orders the householder order and the renounced order so the renounced order which part A and B of this verse talk about the principle is that one turns the ears and the other senses inwards into the fire of the mind of self-control now normally the ears and the other senses can give us a lot of can give us pleasure seems to be a lot of pleasure initially the pressure turns out to be very little actually but either way there is some pleasure that we can get when we let the senses go outwards and seek the sense objects so now the whole principle of yajna is that that which could have been used for our pleasure we offer it for Krishna's pleasure so the senses instead of being used for our pleasure are offered to Krishna for his pleasure and how is that done at this point Krishna has not been directly introduced and the seekers in this case the renunciates the brahmacharis, the sanyasis they turn their senses inwards and don't let the senses go outwards in the pursuit of pleasure and therein is a principle of sacrifice so that which could be used for one's own pleasure, the senses going here and there and going towards the sense objects and delighting in the sense objects instead the senses are turned inwards and the senses go to now ultimately the senses are meant to be offered to the supreme lord that is the principle of bhakti that we use the senses to serve the lord of the senses at this stage Krishna has not introduced himself so explicitly therefore he talks more about offering the senses not to him but he mentions that offer them in the fire of self-control so offering the senses in the fire of self-control essentially means controlling the senses Krishna is using the figurative language using the imagery of fire sacrifice to illustrate this principle that we are all vulnerable to the illusions of this world and whatever sacred imagery we have that sacred imagery if we can use then that can stimulate our imagination and that can bring greater inspiration in our practice of dharma when people are living in a pious culture then certain activities are considered to be sacred and it invokes a certain amount of pious instincts to get along with the activity to do the activity for example people may materialistic but if they have altar in their home when they come in front of the altar they will fold their hands may bow down they may offer some prayers so the point is that all of us have certain religious instincts at least if you have been brought up in a culture where those are there so now when it is shown to us how those same religious instincts which inspire awe and reverence in us if it is shown that they pervade beyond the specific religious activities with which we are associating them and we see that they pervade other activities and the other activities also become infused with the vision of the sacred so in the cultural context in which Krishna was speaking fire sacrifices were quite a common and important sacred activity so now the participants would take a bath and then come and then after doing a lot of ritual purification would sit in a very grave position to participate in sacred activity of fire sacrifice so Krishna is telling that activities which may not seem sacred directly they can also be infused with the vision of the sacred if they are associated with the imagery of the sacred activity of fire sacrifice so rather than seeing sense control as a rigid act of abnegation one can see it as an act of sacrifice rather than telling the senses don't see that, don't see that, don't see that, instead tell the senses now senses you are becoming a part in a sacrifice for the pleasure of the supreme lord so when the senses attract to the sense objects we draw the senses back, turn them away from the sense objects and turn them inwards where we know Krishna resides even if we can't see him right now so rather than you say no, no, no I will not look at the sense objects in the wrong direction swaha rather we think swaha let me offer my senses on a moment to moment basis as much as possible in a ahuti to Krishna and similarly the sense objects can also be offered so offering the senses that means not letting the senses come in contact with the sense objects that is the principle of sacrifice for the um renunciates because renunciates say don't marry or don't don't engage in sense gratification at least not in the primary sense gratification of the contact of the male and female now the grahasthas they have the license for relationships within the sacred bond of marriage but that can also be seen as a matter of sacrifice shabda, deen, vishaya, nanya so objects sense objects which are sound indriya, agnesha, juhvati so rather than saying one's one's spouse because here the sense object is related to the senses so rather than seeing the spouse as an object for one's own pleasure the yogi who is performing sacrifices can see the sense object as also an ahuti to be offered to the lord through the senses that means all activities are done for the pleasure of the lord so even the activity of sex is done for the pleasure of the lord recognizing that recognizing that actually the activity is for begetting begetting a saintly soul into this world and in that way serving the lord so we will look at this more when we talk about dharmavriddho bhuteshu kamasmi bharadarshamah in 7.11 I am kama that is not contrary to dharma now it's interesting here that Krishna uses the sense and the sense object associated with sound so it's a sound and shabda and shrotra and ear rather than talking about say rupa and chakshu why is that certainly with respect to sense gratification the eyes and the form which you see through the eyes are the primary attractions but they are not the only attractions along with that there is also the attraction of the through the ears indeed it is Prahlad Maharaj also uses the word shruti sukha the happiness that which is being heard about through the scriptures and through the other sources now scriptures here doesn't refer to bhagavad gita it refers to the vedas which talk about heavenly pleasures so the vedas may also offer sense gratification heavenly sense gratification and in general we also hear about sense gratification from others indeed much of the worldly gossip is about sense gratification many times the imagination gets fueled not just by what we see but by what we hear Chetan Mahaprabhu in his instructions to Raghunath Das Goswami says that the characteristic of sanyasi is don't speak on mundane topics and don't hear mundane topics so don't speak on mundane topics because once we start speaking and hearing mundane topics then the downward spiral into material consciousness and eventually into sense gratification goes on and on so essentially this verse is talking about how we can stay pure in our activities either at one level or the other level at the level of senses being offered inwards towards the mind in sense control or the sense objects being offered to the senses in a regulated way and in that way the principle of sacrifice can be pursued even in these activities.

Thank you.