Shloka 30
ध्यानयोगः — Dhyāna-Yoga
Discipline of Meditation and Mental Restraint
अपरे नियताहारा: प्राणान्प्राणेषु जुद्बति | सर्वेड्प्येते यज्ञविदो यज्ञक्षपितकल्मषा:
apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati | sarve 'py ete yajñavido yajñakṣapitakalmaṣāḥ ||
Andere wiederum, die ihre Nahrung zügeln, opfern ihre eigenen Lebensatemzüge in die Lebensatemzüge — sie üben das innere Opfer durch die Lenkung der vitalen Kräfte. All diese, Kenner des Opfers, lassen ihre Unreinheiten durch die Opferdisziplin verzehren.
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
True yajña is not limited to external ritual; disciplined self-regulation—especially of food and the vital energies—can itself be an inner sacrifice that purifies the practitioner.
Arjuna describes different kinds of sacrificial practitioners. Here he points to ascetics who regulate diet and perform an inward offering of the life-breaths into the life-breaths, and he concludes that such people are genuine knowers of yajña whose faults are reduced through their practice.