Chapter 3 · Verse 13 · Karma Yoga
Bhagavad Gita 3.13
Sanskrit
यज्ञशिष्टाशिनः सन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषैः। भुञ्जते ते त्वघं पापा ये पचन्त्यात्मकारणात्।।3.13।।
Transliteration
yajña-śhiṣhṭāśhinaḥ santo muchyante sarva-kilbiṣhaiḥ bhuñjate te tvaghaṁ pāpā ye pachantyātma-kāraṇāt
In plain words
You're exhausted from working only for yourself—for the paycheck, the approval, the security—and it hasn't freed you; it's only tightened the knot. Krishna says: when you shift even one thing you do today into an offering, when you stop demanding that life pay you back and start giving without scorekeeping, something inside stops rotting. The liberation isn't waiting at the end; it lives in the act itself.
Word by Word
When we offer our actions as worship—cooking food with consciousness, working with surrender to something greater than ourselves—we are purified by the very act of selfless service. The saintly person who eats the remnants of such sacred work absorbs that sanctity and is freed from all karmic debt.
But those who labor only for personal gain, who cook and consume for themselves alone, eat only ash and bitterness—they feed their own bondage. In modern life, this means transforming your daily work into an offering: whether you're in a kitchen, an office, or a home, do it as service to something larger than your ego's appetite, and watch how that simple shift liberates you from the suffocation of self-concern.
Listen
Bhagavad Gita 3.13 — BG 3.13
Your Mantra Prescription
This mantra is prescribed for clarity and purpose. Is that what you're going through?
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