यज्ञदानतपःकर्म न त्याज्यं कार्यमेव तत् ।यज्ञो दानं तपश्चैव पावनानि मनीषिणाम् ॥
yajñadānatapaḥkarma na tyājyaṃ kāryameva tatyajño dānaṃ tapaścaiva pāvanāni manīṣiṇām
Acts of sacrifice, giving and askesis ought not to be renounced at all, but should be performed, for they purify the wise.
Gītā 18·5The Gita states three main elements of the work we have to do, kartavyakarma, and these three are sacrifice, giving and askesis. For when questioned by Arjuna on the difference between the outer and inner renunciation, saṁnnyāsa and tyāgaḥ , Krishna insists that these three things ought not to be renounced at all but ought altogether to be done, for they are the work before us, kartavyakarma and they purify the wise. In other words these acts constitute the means of our perfection. But at the same time they may be done unwisely or less wisely by the unwise. All dynamic action may be reduced in its essential parts to these three elements. For all dynamic action, all kinesis of the nature involves a voluntary or an involuntary tapasya or askesis, an energism and concentration of our forces or capacities or of some capacity which helps us to achieve, to acquire or to become something, tapas. All action involves a giving of what we are or have, an expenditure which is the price of that achievement, acquisition or becoming, dāna. All action involves too a sacrifice to elemental or to universal powers or to the supreme Master of our works. The question is whether we do these things inconsciently, passively, or at best with an unintelligent ignorant half-conscient will, or with an unwisely or perversely conscient energism, or with a wisely conscient will rooted in knowledge, in other words, whether our sacrifice, giving and askesis are tamasic, rajasic or sattwic in nature.
