Gita 04.33 – Let action be permeated by knowledge and culminate in knowledge

Bhavita 4.33 so shreyan better than dravyamayad yajna yajna which involves dravyam which involves money, which involves sacrifice of money jnan yajna parantapa whereas the yajna which involves knowledge that is better sarvam karma khilam partha culmination of all karma khilam, their goal, their conclusion is jnane parisamapithe they culminate in jnana so rather than there are many significant points in this verse lets look at the first half krishna is saying that giving charity is good but more important than giving charity or better or higher is jnana yajna the yajna in which there is performance of there is actually the ritual of or there is the involvement of knowledge that means one is using one's inner faculty, one is using one's intelligence and knows what is doing and is doing so our knowledge as i said we can have knowledge of various things when we are talking about jnana yajna in one of the earlier talks so we can have knowledge about various things but when we direct our knowledge acquiring propensity towards spiritual truth ultimately towards krishna then that is jnana yajna in the ultimate sense so so instead of that means that instead of doing sacrifice that involves that involves giving away of wealth if one does sacrifice that involves jnana yajna it involves knowledge and that is better krishna is saying so instead of so in general people think of punya in terms of say giving some dana but often people think of either studying scripture or acquiring knowledge not so much as pious but it is also pious and not just pious it is actually here we are talking about spiritual piety that means that which takes us spiritually towards the absolute truth so sarvam karmakhilam partha so first part krishna is telling is don't do some rituals don't have a ritualistic understanding of yajna have a philosophical understanding now after that he says the second part sarvam karmakhilam partha the purpose of various different kinds of karma so here there are two adjectives actually the sarvam and there is akhilam two describers so all there are different kinds of karma and when those activities are done in their completion then in their completeness then what happens by that jnane parisamapyate they end in jnana they end in they help one to develop knowledge so the purpose of doing any activity is not just to keep doing that activity but to grow in knowledge through the doing of that activity this of course was the underlying principle of karma yoga as we discussed earlier also that when krishna in 3.7 talked about how instead of being a mithyachari renunciate being a engaged householder is better so at that time essentially what krishna was talking about is this that one should engage one senses so here krishna is saying do activity the purpose of activity is the development of knowledge so arjuna has that stereotype idea that the way to develop knowledge is by giving up activity and practicing contemplation practicing inactive contemplation so krishna is saying no don't think of these two as two contradictory or two binary things they are unitary binary means two different unitary means having something in common they have unitary purpose so they have so even the path of karma is ultimately meant to gain jnana now this jnana what it refers to krishna has not specified that but we shouldn't think that jnana always has to refer to impersonal jnana the jnana of impersonal brahman or jnana is to refer to jnana yoga even bhaktas have jnana jnana is the jnana is the natural feature of the soul because chitta the soul has consciousness and with consciousness the soul naturally acquire jnana it is not that the jnana has to be the defining identity of the soul with the jnana the atma can practice bhakti and when the atma gets a taste for bhakti then bhakti becomes the defining feature of the soul so the important point is that we neither have mania for jnana nor a phobia for jnana mania for jnana means that one thing that jnana itself is the ultimate thing and somehow or the other i have to cultivate jnana krishna will tell later about how in 7.19 he will state that jnana culminates in bhakti bahunam janmanamante jnanavan mam prapadyate vasudeva sarvamiti samatmasu durlabhahan so he will describe how jnana those who acquire jnana those who become jnanavan they actually practice bhakti they vasudeva mam prapadyate they surrender to me and surrendering to krishna is the essence of the practice of bhakti so one should not have a mania for jnana thinking that jnana itself is the ultimate thing nor should we have a phobia for jnana phobia means an irrational fear and the idea of a phobia is one thinks that there is no as devotee is jnana we should not touch jnana also because jnana is all about jnana marga and it is about impersonal liberation jnana is basically a something which can be used in bhakti also so there is shushka jnana dry jnana which is undesirable but there is bhakti unmokha jnana which is desirable by jnana we understand the glory of krishna we understand his greatness and we feel more inspired to devote ourselves to him so when here krishna is talking about jnana pari samapyate he is simply talking in a generic sense about how they jnana which we have is the jnana of the jnana which is the foundation for spiritual life just like we say by inquisitiveness what do we get we get knowledge of brahma, brahma jnana and then by brahma jnana we understand also not just that i am brahma i can also understand that i am a servant of brahma if i get proper understanding of jnana and then i can that inspires me in bhakti so sarvam karma khilam partha jnana pari samapyate the ultimate purpose of all knowledge is to enable us to so the purpose of all the karma that one does is to get jnana so arjuna if you want liberation don't think that you have to renounce the world and go to the forest no you can be in this world also but if you recognize the reality that you are meant to go beyond this world that the work that you do in this world is not necessarily something which will keep you entangled the work you do here can also take you beyond this world and therefore do the work that you have to do that will help you to move onwards jnana pari samapyate so there are two features two distinct points in this verse the first half states that arjuna whatever you do it is better to do in knowledge than do it ritualistically so and second he says when you are doing activities don't think that the path of enlightenment and the path of action are different because the path of action also leads to enlightenment.