III: 15

Chapter 3, Verse 15

"Arjuna, understand that every act of worship
Is born from the eternal, infinite God.
He is present in every act of worship."

Swami Satchidananda:

"The gist of this chapter is that we are all born to act, which is Karma, and when our Karma, our doing, is selfless, worship is born of that. Make your actions worshipful.”

Ram Dass:

"When I was studying with Baba Hari Dass, I learned Mantras for every single activity I engaged in daily: Mantras for waking up and for going to sleep, for taking a shower, for each type of going to the toilet, Mantras for everything. The purpose was to turn them all into offerings, acts of worship."

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

"Our physical birth comes with the aid of a doctor or midwife. We can be born again to the joy of the spirit, if we transform our egos from master to servant. When our selfishness and separateness die in us, there will be a jubilant procession with bands playing and people strewing flowers all over our path. It is a day of great celebration for the whole world, because one such person putting the lower mind to death in himself or herself has done the greatest service to others. Whatever life has been, it now becomes a constant source of support and inspiration to others, an unending reminder that this is the supreme state we have come into the world to experience."

[“Healing the universe is an inside job.” From the movie Mindwalk.]

Srila Prabhupada:

“It is said that the Lord glanced over material nature and fathered all living entities. After impregnating the conditioned souls into the womb of material nature, he gave directions as to how such conditioned souls can return home, back to God. Conditioned souls are all eager for material enjoyment. The directions are so constituted that one can satisfy one’s desires and then return to God. It is a chance for the conditioned souls to attain liberation; therefore they are to follow the process of Yajna by becoming Krishna conscious. Even those who have not followed the Vedic injunctions may adopt the principles of Krishna consciousness, and that will take the place of the performance of Vedic Yajnas.”

Daniel Clark:

“This is the heart of Sadhana: offering everything we do to God. Prabhupad said don't subtract anything, simply add Krishna. ‘One can satisfy one's desires and then return to God.’ Easwaran describes the ‘joyful procession.’ Ram Dass delineates the exactitude with which the offering process must be conducted.

Sooner or later the sweet taste of Bhakti [devotion] erodes the attraction for material experiences. Also, no one is going to be interested in just adding Krishna unless their innate desire for spirituality has already poked its head above water. That spiritual desire is always present within me. It gradually wakes up out of its stupor after I suffer enough at the hands of my material desire. The point here is not that material activities will lead me to Krishna. I'm already doing them. What will lead me to Krishna is what I'm adding to them. In time that will take over.”