Chapter 4 Gnana Yoga Verse 16 – Bhagavadgita

Chapter 4 Gnana Yoga Verse 16

Sloka

Brahmaarpanam brahmahavirbrahmaagnau brahmanaa hutam;
Brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahmakarmasamaadhinaa.

Translation

Brahman is the oblation; Brahman is the melted butter (ghee); by Brahman is the oblation poured into the fire of Brahman;
Brahman verily shall be reached by him who always sees Brahman in action.

Interpretation

This is another important sloka where Lord Krishna explains what is Brahman. Brahman is God or Godliness and since we cannot see it Lord Krishna makes us to see it in different forms that we see. He says that Brahman is any kind of offering that we make to God, Brahman is also the ghee that we use in yagna. He also explains that one form of God that is Ghee is poured into another form of God which he says is fire that explains a process called Yagna which is also Brahman. And finally Lord Krishna says that a person who is an ordinary soul can reach God if he sees God in every action that he does.

Extending Interpretation to Mankind’s Life!

We need to the usage of the words like ghee, fire, action and Brahman in this sloka. The words ghee and fire talks about purity. What is purity? Purity is the nature of our actions. We pour ghee into fire, it makes fire to burn more. That also increases the purity of fire. This process is called Yagna or sacrifice. Let’s take an individual. Passion is like fire and efforts that he puts to fulfil that passion is like ghee. If efforts mix with passion in a sacrifice the results come like how purity of fire increases with ghee. Here the efforts of the person who does what he is passionate about, produces results that are as pure as conducting a Yagna or sacrifice using fire and ghee. Just understand how deeply these two anolagies are connected.

The next most important thing is seeing God in every action. We see God in temples, we see God in saints, we also see God in some people and worship them, like people see God in their parents, a divot wife sees God in her husband. But do we ever see God in the action that we do? If we see every action with the sanctity with which we see God, then we will do that action with lot of love and care. We attach a lot of importance to that action and do it with utmost dedication.

That Godliness also stops us from doing wrong actions like we never steal things, we never cheat people or dupe them for money. We do Godly things like helping people, offering alms to the needy and helping people come out of their difficulties. That is how this sloka should be seen and every bit of it should be practiced to attain the state of Brahman.

Published by Sriram

A Teacher trying to Learn new things and explore the world each day! Believe in Happiness by the virtue of sacrifice and forgiveness.

Leave a Reply