Shloka 14
Karma-Saṃnyāsa–Karma-Yoga Saṃvāda
Renunciation and the Discipline of Action
सम्बन्ध-- यहाँ यह जिज्ञासा होती है कि यज्ञ न करनेसे क्या हानि है; इसपर युष्टिचक्रको युरक्षित रखनेके लिये यज्ञकी आवश्यकताका प्रतिपादन करते हैं-- अन्नाद् भवन्ति भूतानि पर्जन्यादन्नसम्भव: । यज्ञाद् भवति पर्जन्यो यज्ञ: कर्मसमुद्भव:
annād bhavanti bhūtāni parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ | yajñād bhavati parjanyo yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ ||
All living beings arise and are sustained by food; food comes into being from rain; rain is produced through sacrifice (yajña); and sacrifice is born of prescribed action. Thus the moral order is shown as a chain of mutual support: when people perform their rightful duties in a spirit of offering, nature is nourished, society is fed, and life is upheld.
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a dharmic ecology of reciprocity: beings depend on food, food depends on rain, rain depends on yajña (sacrificial offering), and yajña depends on rightly performed action. Ethical life is presented as sustaining both society and the natural world through disciplined duty and the spirit of offering.
In the midst of the Kurukṣetra setting, the teaching turns to why yajña and prescribed duties matter. The speaker frames sacrifice not as a mere ritual, but as a principle that maintains the cycle of nourishment—linking human conduct (karma) with cosmic and social well-being.