25. Sacrifice, or yajña, should be performed in divine consciousness as an offering to the Supreme Lord. However, people vary in their understanding, and hence perform sacrifice in different manners with dissimilar consciousness. Persons with lesser understanding, and wanting material rewards, make offerings to the celestial gods.
Others with deeper understanding of the meaning of yajña offer their own selves as sacrifice to the Supreme. This is called ātma samarpaṇ, or ātmāhutī, or offering one's soul to God. Yogi Shri Krishna Prem explained this very well: "In this world of dust and din, whenever one makes ātmāhutī in the flame of divine love, there is an explosion, which is grace, for no true ātmāhutī can ever go in vain." But what is the process of offering one's own self as sacrifice? This is performed by surrendering oneself completely to God. Such surrender has six aspects to it, which have been explained in verse. Here, Shree Krishna continues to explain the different kinds of sacrifice that people perform.
26. Fire transforms the nature of things consigned into it. In external ritualistic Vedic sacrifices, it physically consumes oblations offered to it. In the internal practice of spirituality, fire is symbolic. The fire of self-discipline burns the desires of the senses.
Here, Shree Krishna distinguishes between two diametrically opposite approaches to spiritual elevation. One is the path of negation of the senses, which is followed in the practice of haṭha yog. In this type of yajña (sacrifice), the actions of the senses are suspended, except for the bare maintenance of the body. The mind is completely withdrawn from the senses and made introvertive, by force of will-power.
Opposite to this is the practice of bhakti yog. In this second type of yajña, the senses are made to behold the glory of the Creator that manifests in every atom of his creation. The senses no longer remain as instruments for material enjoyment; rather they are sublimated to perceive God in everything. In verse 7.8, Shree Krishna says: raso 'ham apsu kaunteya "Arjun, know me to be the taste in water." Accordingly, bhakti yogis practice to behold God through all their senses, in everything they see, hear, taste, feel, and smell. This yajña of devotion is simpler than the path of haṭha yog; it is joyous to perform, and involves a smaller risk of downfall from the path. If one is riding a bicycle and presses the brakes to stop the forward motion, he will be in an unstable condition, but if the cyclist simply turns the handle to the left or right, the bicycle will very easily stop its forward motion and still remain stably balanced.
27. There are some yogis who follow the path of discrimination, or jñāna yog, and take the help of knowledge to withdraw their senses from the world. While haṭha yogis strive to restrain the senses with brute will-power, jñāna yogis accomplish the same goal with the repeated practice of discrimination based on knowledge. They engage in deep contemplation upon the illusory nature of the world, and the identity of the self as distinct from the body, mind, intellect, and ego. The senses are withdrawn from the world, and the mind is engaged in meditation upon the self. The goal is to become practically situated in self-knowledge, in the assumption that the self is identical with the Supreme Ultimate reality. As aids to contemplation, they chant aphorisms such as: tattvamasi "I am That," (Chhāndogya Upaniṣhad ) and ahaṁ brahmāsmi "I am the Supreme Entity."
The practice of jñāna yog is a very difficult path, which requires a very determined and trained intellect. The Śhrīmad Bhāgavatam states: nirviṇṇānāṁ jñānayogaḥ "Success in the practice of jñāna yog is only possible for those who are at an advanced stage of renunciation."
28. Human beings differ from each other in their natures, motivations, activities, professions, aspirations, and sanskārs (tendencies carrying forward from past lives). Shree Krishna brings Arjun to the understanding that sacrifices can take on hundreds of forms, but when they are dedicated to God, they become means of purification of the mind and senses and elevation of the soul. In this verse, he mentions three such yajñas that can be performed.
Dravya yajña. There are those who are inclined toward earning wealth and donating it in charity toward a divine cause. Although they may engage in large and complicated business endeavors, yet their inner motivation remains to serve God with the wealth they earn. In this manner, they offer their propensity for earning money as sacrifice to God in devotion. John Wesley, the British preacher and founder of the Methodist Church would instruct his followers: "Make all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can."
Yog yajña. In Indian philosophy the Yog Darśhan is one of the six philosophical treatises written by six learned sages. Jaimini wrote "Mīmānsā Darśhan," Ved Vyas wrote "Vedānt Darśhan," Gautam wrote "Nyāya Darśhan," Kanad wrote "Vaiśheṣhik Darśhan," Kapil wrote "Sānkhya Darśhan," and Patañjali wrote "Yog Darśhan." The Patañjali Yog Darśhan describes an eight-fold path, called aṣhṭāṅg yog, for spiritual advancement, starting with physical techniques and ending in conquest of the mind. Some people find this path attractive and practice it as sacrifice. However, Patañjali Yog Darśhan clearly states:
"To attain perfection in Yog, you must surrender to God." So when persons inclined toward aṣhṭang yog learn to love God, they offer their yogic practice as yajña in the fire of devotion. An example of this is the yogic system "Jagadguru Kripaluji Yog," where the physical postures of aṣhṭaṅg yog are practiced as yajña to God, along with the chanting of his divine names. Such a combination of yogic postures along with devotion results in the physical, mental, and spiritual purification of the practitioner.
Jñāna yajña. Some persons are inclined toward the cultivation of knowledge. This propensity finds its perfect employment in the study of scriptures for enhancing one's understanding and love for God. sā vidyā tanmatiryayā (Bhāgavatam ) "True knowledge is that which increases our devotion to God." Thus, studiously inclined sādhaks engage in the sacrifice of knowledge, which when imbued with the spirit of devotion, leads to loving union with God.
29-30. Some persons are drawn to the practice of prāṇāyām, which is loosely translated as "control of breath." This involves:
Pūrak—the process of drawing the breath into the lungs.
Rechak—the process of emptying the lungs of breath.
Antar kumbhak—holding the breath in the lungs after inhalation. The outgoing breath gets suspended in the incoming breath during the period of suspension.
Bāhya kumbhak—keeping the lungs empty after exhalation. The incoming breath gets suspended in the outgoing breath during the period of suspension.
Both the kumbhaks are advanced techniques and should only be practiced under the supervision of qualified teachers, else they can cause harm. Yogis who are inclined toward the practice of prāṇāyām utilize the process of breath control to help tame the senses and bring the mind into focus. Then they offer the controlled mind in the spirit of yajña to the Supreme Lord.
Prāṇ is not exactly breath; it is a subtle life force energy that pervades the breath and varieties of animate and inanimate objects. The Vedic scriptures describe five kinds of prāṇas in the body—prāṇ, apān, vyān, samān, udān—that help regulate various physiological bodily functions. Amongst these, samān is responsible for the bodily function of digestion. Some people may also be inclined toward fasting. They curtail their eating with the knowledge that diet impacts character and behavior. Such fasting has been employed as a spiritual technique in India since ancient times and also considered here a form of yajña. When the diet is curtailed, the senses become weak and the samān, which is responsible for digestion, is made to neutralize itself. This is the nature of the sacrifice that some people perform.
People perform these various kinds of austerities for the purpose of purification. It is desire for gratification of the senses and the mind which leads to the heart becoming impure. The aim of all these austerities is to curtail the natural propensity of the senses and mind to seek pleasure in material objects. When these austerities are performed as a sacrifice to the Supreme, they result in the purification of the heart (as mentioned before, the word "heart" is often used to refer to the internal machinery of the mind and intellect).