Bhagavad Gita : Chapter 3 : Slokas 9 to 16 : yagnya, karma, praja, deva

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Bhagavad Gita : Chapter 3 : Slokas 9 to 16 : yagnya, karma, praja, deva

 http://ancientindians.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/gitathree9to16.mp3

3: 9 Karma should be done for yagnya. Otherwise this world is a bondage of (namely) karma. Therefore O son of kuntI, do your karma well for the sake of  ’Tat’ (the Brahman) and , free from attachment.

3:10 In the past prajApati (Brahma) created people (prajAs) and yajnas (yagnyAs) together and said, “prosper by this (yagnya), for you this is the “one-that-yields-your desires”.

(See : pancha mahaa yagnyas, Vedic Rites (Rituals) : kalpa, The Devas of the Veda). 

*People were created at the same time as yagnyAs, but the dEvAs were already there.

3:11 (Brahma said) Regard (bhAvaya) the dEvAs through this (yagnya). May the dEvAs regard you. Attain s’rEyas (welfare) by mutual regard for each other.

*bhAvaya can also mean – bring into existence. The dEvAs give us what we need and sustain us and we sustain them through yagnyAs.

3: 12 dEvAs who are regarded through yagnyAs will give you your desired bhOgAs. He is a thief who eats without offering to them what they have given.

3: 13 The sinners  who cook for their own selves eat pApam. (action with bad consequences). Saintly people are freed from all pApams by eating that (prasAda) which is left after the yagnya.

3:14 From annam (food) exist  beings, from clouds (rain) does food come into being (rice grows). Clouds come from yagnyAs and yagnyAs come from karma.

* Swami Dayananda Saraswati, said that vedic karma kAnDa yagnyas have the effect of cloud seeding, air purifying and several other practical benefits. It rains whenever some special yagnyAs are performed in kEraLa.

3:15 Know that karma comes from brahma and brahma comes from akSara (The indivisible kAraNa brahma). That is why, the brahman that goes everywhere is stabilised in yagnya.

3:16 He lives in vain, that sinner (who lives for agha – pApam), who  relaxes (aaraama) in his indriyAs and does not follow this wheel (cycle of work).

Worshipfyl Work (yagnya – yaj root means to worship) comes from action (karma), which comes from brahman. Work pleases dEvAs and dEvAs give results. Offer the results to the dEvAs before you enjoy them. ie recognize that what comes from ‘your’ work is really “Their” gift. Your work is your worship. The results are prasaada.

In today’s paradigms the intermediary role of the dEvAs is not recognised, people believe that their rewards directly spring from their work. Or some people happily renounce all effort and leave everything to the dEvAs and do not do karma or yagnya.

Notes : 

Even today in many households food is first offered to God as ‘naivedyam’ and then eaten as prasadam. Cooking and eating are one form of yajnya. Work is another form of yagnya.., if you do it as worship and offer the benefits to God, before enjoying the rest as prasAdam. This means if you work all month and get a salary, you must offer a part of it to God and accept the rest of it as His prasAdam. If your work is a yagnya, and your salary is the yagnya phala, then you must perceive it as given by the dEvas who are pleased by your yagnya., not by your employers. This is hard. But if you do it you are on the way to becoming a karmayOgi.

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