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Chapter 16
Yajnah:- It means, (yajna) offering daily oblation to sacred fire. Performance of 'Balivaisvadeva' (offering a portion of the daily meal to creatures), according to one's caste, is also sacrifice.
O Lord, the nectar of Your life history provides life and peace to tits distressed beings. The great souls describe it by heart. It destroys all the sins and causes auspiciousness. The saints have described it in detail. Those who narrate it on the earth, they are specially charitable to the world i.e., they do the greatest good to the world (Srimadbha. 10131/9).
Besides it, from the view-point of Gita performance of one's duty, according to one's caste, social order (stage of life) and circumstances, is also sacrifice (yajna), provided it is for the welfare of others, and is free from selfishness and pride. In addition, to these one's profession, daily routine, obedience to parents, teachers and elders, reverence. to cows, Brahmana (the persons of the priest class), gods and the Lord, is also sacrifice (yajaa), provided there is no desire for the fruit.
Svadhyayah:- 'Svadhysya includes chanting of the Lord's name, and study of sacred books, such as the Gita, the Bhagavata, the Ramayana and Mahabharata etc. In fact 'Svadhysya, means the proper study of one's dispositions and situation viz., introspection. A striver, should be very cautious.
He should not judge his progress, through changing propensities. Actually, these dispositions (propensities), always undergo modifications, they appear and disappear. So should a striver, not purify these? One must purify them. They can be easily and quickly purified, when a striver, ceases to regard them, and the inner sense, as his own. To regard them as one's own is impurity at the root. The self, being a fragment of the Lord, is pure and it has never got tainted. Affinity with dispositions, veils Self-realization. If we do not feel happy, in good dispositions and sad, in evil dispositions, and never treat these dispositions, as our own, by snapping total connection, with these, we can have, Self-realization.
Tapah:- Austerity, consists in suffering hardships, such as hunger, thirst, cold, heat and rain etc., and knowingly tolerance of hardships happily, while discharging one's duty, and earning one's livelihood, is real austerity[1] (tapa) because it destroys sins and provides strength for toleration.
A striver, should not use his austerity, in granting boons, in hurling curses, in doing evil to others and in satisfying desires.
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