Summary:

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 24 – Part 1: Today's lesson used the image of over-watering plants to illustrate how personal likes and dislikes distort our decisions. Krishna teaches that right action isn't about choosing between two options like fight or don't fight, but about examining your intention and serving the larger whole – as demonstrated by Mandela, who set aside 27 years of resentment for South Africa's unity, and Gandhi, who canceled his independence movement to uphold nonviolence. However, noble action only becomes Karma Yoga when dedicated to Ishvara with no attachment to results, and with the specific intention of purifying the mind for self-knowledge. The distinction between a Karma Yogi, who still carries a healthy sense of doership, and a Jnani, who recognizes Ahamkara as merely incidental, was also explored. Verse 24 was introduced as both daily practice and the vision of a wise person – showing how even eating can reveal Ishvara's vast intelligence and generosity. By tracing a shirt down through cotton, yarn, molecules, and atoms, we discovered that while every form dissolves into another, two things remain constant throughout every level of analysis – existence and intelligence. That formless, ever-present reality which underlies and pervades all forms, and which science alone cannot reach, is what Vedanta calls Brahman.

Revision of BG CH 4.23: How to Make The Right Decisions

Arjuna’s initial decision to collect weapons was driven by dvesha (dislike), while his later decision not to fight on Kurukshetra was driven by raga, or familial love. It’s like having excess love for fertilizers, so you keep feeding your house plant with excess fertilizer. Or you can’t stand welting leaves, so you constantly water it. Both are eating you up because they’re about “me and not about the plant.

Krishna was showing Arjuna that he must look at the bigger picture: the kingdom needs a righteous king, a psychologically healthy leader. Then acting from that vision.

Thus the right decision is neither simply to fight nor to not fight, but to do what needs to be done, to serve the larger order that’ll survive long after I’m gone.  

This “larger order” thinking behind your actions, is what evolves you, because it forces you to become less subjective/biased (less about me) – because it was never about you to begin with.

Examples of looking at the larger order over personal likes/dislikes:

1. Nelson Mandela — overcoming dvesha (hatred): After 27 years in prison, Mandela had every personal reason to pursue revenge against the apartheid regime. But he chose reconciliation, knowing a revenge-driven leadership would tear South Africa apart.
2. Gandhi — overcoming raga (attachment to his own goal): In 1922, Gandhi's independence movement was at its peak. Then a mob of protesters killed 22 policemen. Gandhi immediately called off the entire movement – even though it meant losing years of hard work and momentum. His colleagues were furious. But Gandhi's bigger principle was non-violence.
3. A mother discovers her teenage son/daughter has been bullying a classmate: Her instinct is to protect him – he's her child, she loves him, and admitting it feels like admitting she failed as a parent. It's tempting to say “my son would never do that”. But she sees the bigger picture: if she shields him now, he learns that love means escaping consequences. He grows into an adult who harms people and expects to be protected. The other child is also suffering.

Where does Karma-Yoga come in?

So far, these actions are noble and evolve your thinking – as your thinking about the impact of your actions and thus the larger order. But it’s not karma-yoga. What makes it karma-yoga of chapter 3 is acknowledging, “I choose the big picture over my personal fancies, not because I want to be a good person or seek validation or go to heaven. But it evolves my mind, aligning it to Ishvara-srsti, which makes it self-knowledge compatible”.

NEXT VERSE: Gives a practical example of doing an action in spirit of Karma-Yoga, or bringing Ishvara into your life…

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 24:
How Karma-Yoga dissolves binding actions

ब्रह्म-अर्पणं ब्रह्म हविः ब्रह्म-अग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् ।
ब्रह्म एव तेन गन्तव्यम् ब्रह्म-कर्म-समाधिना ॥ ४-२४॥
brahma-arpaṇaṃ brahma haviḥ brahma-agnau brahmaṇā hutam ।
brahma eva tena gantavyam brahma-karma-samādhinā ॥ 4-24॥
The means of offering is Brahman. The oblation is Brahman, offered by Brahman into the fire, which is Brahman. Brahman indeed is to be reached by him who sees everything as Brahman.

Verse can be interpreted in two ways. Attitude of a Karma-Yogi, and direct unspoken vision of a jñāni.

Attitude of a Karma-Yogi:

Action of eating is mostly driven by raga-dvesha, so it binds you in sense of turning your discussions and means of connecting to other people though food topics.

Krishna reminds us you’re given an opportunity each time you eat to bring to mind the participation of network of people, natural forces involved to make the food and eating possible.

Verse shows that you can turn habitual and mundane into a spiritual practice, such as re-remembering world is interconnected, Ishvara is in form of the food you're about to eat, the generosity of the universe, etc. This is much smarter then asking “How many calories in this food?”.

You can also apply this verse to anxiety (something we do habitually). One comes to re-look at it as Ishvara’s program letting you know something needs to change. If had zero anxiety, you wouldn’t protect yourself from danger.

Verse also shows what healthy spirituality is. It’s not dismissing the world (such as food) as illusionary or unimportant, nor creating artificial composure because “nothing really matters”. Rather, it’s showing humility. And you're not being humble for God's sake, you're doing it for your sake because it expands your thinking and emotions each time you deliberately bring Ishvara into your life. 

Direct Vision of a Jnani:

Kṛṣṇa unfolds the assimilated Advaita vision which says there’s aren’t two realities. Reality is One. This One Reality is right now appearing as your body, this teacher, this class, this sound, everything.

This one Reality, in Sanskrit is called Brahman (√bṛh), which is of nature of satya (existence), which is of nature of jñāna (consciousness), and this existent-awareful reality has no second, thus it is ananta (without a second; meaning it’s not subject to time or located in space).

And Krishna uses a common Vedic ritual in Vedic times, to demonstrate vision of a jñāni while eating. Jnani’s buddhi spontaneously cognizes..

• • Arpaṇa (means of offering – the ladle or mantra) is Brahman
  • Havis (the oblation/offering offered) is Brahman
  • Agni (the fire, the location of offering) is Brahman
  • The kartā (the one who offers) is Brahman
  • The purpose (what is to be gained) is Brahman alone

It illustrates how your buddhi can “see” Brahman in everything. For instance, just as when you see a pot – the clay is not missed, or golden ornament – the gold is not missed, or a shirt – the cloth is not missed.

Similarly, when a a buddhi with clarity sees anything – Brahman is not missed. Brahman is the causeless cause, the truth (satya) of everything, while everything else is mithya, depending upon its existence.

Where an ordinary person sees separate components, such as the performer, the altar, the fire, the oblation (offering), the ladle, the mantra, and the purpose (whether seeking a son, puṇya for heaven, or antaḥ-karaṇa-śuddhi) — the jñānī recognizes…

• • What is done is Brahman
  • The one who does it is Brahman
  • Where it is done is Brahman
  • By what it is done is Brahman
  • What is to be achieved is also Brahman

Let's Re-look At Reality Through Some Examples To Help Shift Your Perspective Closer to that of a Jñānī…

Order in Apparent Disorder:

At one level, form looks chaotic/disorderly (like a stone, tree bark, sand). View it under microscope and you see gorgeous orderly design of molecules.

1. 1. For instance, the outer bark of a tree looks rough, cracked, and uneven. But zoom in, and you find thousands of microscopic threads twisted around each other – almost how a rope is braided. And that spiral isn't accidental. It's wound at just the right angle so the tree can be both bendy enough not to snap in the wind, and strong enough not to collapse under its own weight. Then look at level of molecules, and a whole different kind of order emerges.
   2. Another example is embroidery. Look from big picture, it’s gorgeous. Look too closely and its chaos, non-sensical. But zoom in enough, and you see threads intersecting, holding each other. Now, the gorgeous picture is gone, what emerges is world of interwoven threads, totally dependent on each other to create the final design at level of the big picture.

Similarly each person is like a thread interwoven with other people, further interwoven with your ancestors, who are interwoven with theirs… to beginningless time.

So far this shows in apparent disorder, there’s order. Our senses are just not programmed to see it. You have to really look and apply your buddhi. Also shows disorder can’t win over order, because there’s only order.

You Never See the Total Relationship or Full Story of Anything:

Any motion is a product of seen/unseen relationships.

For example, if only have one object in space, you can’t tell it is moving, unless it is in relation to another object moving at a different speed.

Or suppose there’s two objects moving at same speed, and introduce a third object moving at different speed. It’s up to the two objects to decide whether they are moving away from the 3rd object, or 3rd object is moving away from them.

Purpose of writing this is to show even a personal or collective conclusion is relative – and not absolute. Whatever the two objects decide, will be heard louder, as they’re in the majority.

The only reality that's absolute, which can never be relative is Brahman.

More Examples of Interdependence:

1. If there is no wind, and a finger is pointed, it doesn’t know it’s there. Moment gust of wind comes, the becomes aware it is there. Similarly, your thought knows it's there in relation to something else, which is Awareness (you). 
2. A word only has meaning in context to surrounding words. EG: “Look at that large mosquito!” “Look at that large planet!”. Similarly, your personhood is in relation to environment (when surrounded by different environment – personality changes), neurosis, upbringing, current trends, Kali Yuga, etc. Which means, if one variable changed, for instance if one star didn’t exist, your personality/life would be slightly different.
3. This interdependence can be seen in yin-yang symbol; where there are two involved [two represents many], but the two are securely one. This total interdependence of all things isn’t a familiar concept to Western minds. In Advaita, this interdependent nature of all forms is called Satya-Mithya Relationship. In Daoism, Yin-Yang. In Buddhism, Ji-ji-muge (interconnected whole; where the whole is in the part).
4. Huayan Buddhism uses an image to demonstrate interdependence (that one thing must know about all other,  since everything is connected) — there's a complex spider web that's covered with morning dew, and each dew reflects every other dew drop. Each dew contains the knowledge of every other dew, and they're connected by a complex web. If one dew drop panics, it vibrates the entire web it's resting on, affecting all other dew drops.

NEXT SESSION: We'll go into more details to help you see the reality as your very self…

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Course was based on Swami Dayananda (Arsha Vidya) home study course.

Recorded 12 April, 2026