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Bhagavad Gita - December 05, 2008 Chapter 3, Verses: 10-13 Swami Yogatmananda Vedanta Society of Providence     Please click the 'Play' button to start. It may take a minute.   Launch in external player   To download the lecture, please right-click here and then click "Save Target As..."     III.10: In the days of yore, having created the beings together with the sacrifices, Prajapati said: 'By this you multiply. Let this be your yielder of coveted objects of desire.' III.11: 'You nourish the gods with this. Let those gods nourish you. Nourishing one another, you shall attain the supreme good.' III.12: 'Being nourished by sacrifices, the gods will indeed give you the coveted enjoyments. He is certainly a thief who enjoys what have been given by them without offering (these) to them.' III.13: By becoming partakers of the remnants of sacrifices, they become freed from all sins. But the unholy persons who cook for themselves, they incur sin.   The above image is from Gita Darshan by courtesy of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad.   To Order Audio/ Video CDs : bookstore@vedantaprov.org   List of Audio/ Video CDs, DVDs

Summary of this lecture: 'Yajna'- the idea of sacrifice - is created by the Creator Himself along with human beings to guide them on the path. Yajna takes us from where we are to our Goal. It first takes the form of 'give and take'; people are interested in getting things for free; they need to understand that 'giving' has to be there for 'getting'. We must learn to give willingly, happily for what we get. This is the law. Individual existence is inseparably linked with family, society, ecology and ultimately with The Creator. The whole and the part are inter-dependent. One has to acknowledge this interdependence and so each individual has to contribute conscientiously a proper share to the whole. If one just wants to take, then it is thieving and the all-seeing Law of Karma punishes the person by putting him or her in bondage.