Gita 04.27 – Ceassation of all sensory and respiratory activity is a yajna

Bhagavad Gita 4.27 Sarvaan Indriya Karmani Prana Karmani Cha Pare Atma Sayyama Yoga Agno Juhati Gyana Deepite Sarvaan Indriya Karmani all the works of the senses all the work, the actions done by the senses then Prana Karmani Cha Pare and even the karma, the actions that are performed with the Prana, with the life breath the functions which are done by the life breath also Atma Sayyama Yoga Agno Atma Sayyama the self-mastery, self-restraint Yoga Agno so in the fire of the self-control Juhati Gyana Deepite Gyana Deepite those who are illumined by knowledge then Juhati they offer Krishna here is talking about the advanced stages of when Karma Yoga moves towards perfection, at that time how one stops all of one's activities and turns one's consciousness inwards the Bhagavatam also repeatedly describes how the great saintly people are nearing death they stop the activities and they draw their elements inwards it is said so what that means is revealed over here so Sarvan Indriya Karmani now normally we cannot stop all the sense objects but eventually when one renounces the world utterly and one knows that now the time of departure is coming then practically the seeker who is Gyana Deepite who is illumined by knowledge knowing that and not the body and the soul, the body is temporary, inescapably temporary, the soul is eternal and wanting to rise from the bodily level to the soul's level the person turns and then Sarvan Indriya Karmani all the karma of the Indriyas they stop, the person goes into meditation deep inside and then Prana Karman Japare so now Prana is life air the concept of life air is a complex concept which cannot be which has no equivalent in English so Prana Vayu, it can be called as life air but life is a a word which has many connotations and primarily it describes that the Atma is situated in the region of the heart is floating in the five kinds of airs and while floating in these five kinds of airs it usually resides at the point within the body usually near the heart but wherever it is, it depends on the consciousness of the person also the point where amidst these airs the soul, the resultant is zero, so soul is situated at that point so the Prana helps in preserving life functions interestingly the Prana helps in preserving the bodily functions in this body but the Prana is not destroyed when the body is destroyed we know that the soul is not destroyed but this neither is one of the mechanisms by which the soul interacts with the body so it is described that the soul is actually on the verge of going from one body to another body, at that time even the activities of the Prana stop, now normally the idea in mainstream science till recently was that when the breath stops, the person is dead, but now with CPR technology developing faster and faster even a person whose breath has stopped, the person may seem to be dead but that person can actually be revived so how exactly does it happen generally when death happens, the soul becomes someone who can easily or quickly come out of the body because now the body is dead and the body can offer no resistance and the coming of the Yamunatas is a ploy to ensure the change of heart in a substantial and swift way for the person who is to be punished anyway the important thing for us here to understand is that Prana Karmani Chaapari, so Prana Karmani means that for those souls who are bound to the body, one of the agencies through which soul's connection to the body is established is the Prana and when the soul leaves the body at that time the Prana stops functioning in the body and that's why the breathing stops and then the Prana along with the subtle body and the soul they all go to the next body and in that way the person is able to get a next destination so now if the soul has become purified and has given up material desire then the soul has the opportunity to go to the higher spiritual world to a higher spiritual destination this principle we'll talk about in 8.5 and 6 when we come to it but suffice it to say that the very advanced yogis who are Gyan Deepite who are illumined with knowledge and when they come near perfection when their level of realization is approaching perfection then they stop everything and normally they may want to stop distracting sensory activities which is good but the serious yogis who want to pursue transcendence they don't just see sensory activities as undesirable they see all activities as undesirable and even activities which we may not even notice subtle activities they are also seen as distractions as something which should be avoided and that's why they by withdrawing their senses sarvan indriya karmani prana karmani cha pare so they stop the activities of the senses and not just one or two entirely this is talking usually talking about the stage of perfection before which the yogis go into a state of motionless meditation and not only that also the atma sing prana karmani cha pare also the breath is also withdrawn and by withdrawing the breath thus the inner destination becomes easier to attain because now there is no distraction left so it is described that Bhishma Pitamaha also did something like this during his last moments so the mati, the consciousness the thinking feeling willing which are the lanes of the consciousness they were all withdrawn from the outer world and invested in Krishna so that part of investment or investing it all in Krishna will be talked later in the Bhagavad Gita at this stage primarily it is investing in some higher reality so normally our, the activities which you do with the senses indeed the breath that we take that enables us to function in the external world and to get some pleasure also in the external world but when the yogi is illumined by knowledge at that time that which can be used for one's own pleasure the yogi offers for the spiritual quest and that's why Atma Sainyama Yoga now in the fire of complete self control one offers one's sensory activities as well as the prana karma so in this way here another principle of another example of the principle of sacrifice is given in this verse thank you.