Gita 04.24 – When our vision becomes spiritual, our action and destination also become spiritual
brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir
brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam
brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ
brahma-karma-samādhinā (Bg 4.24)
Word-for-word:
brahma — spiritual in nature; arpaṇam — contribution; brahma — the Supreme; haviḥ — butter; brahma — spiritual; agnau — in the fire of consummation; brahmaṇā — by the spirit soul; hutam — offered; brahma — spiritual kingdom; eva — certainly; tena — by him; gantavyam — to be reached; brahma — spiritual; karma — in activities; samādhinā — by complete absorption.
Translation:
A person who is fully absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is offered is of the same spiritual nature.
Explanation:
In this verse, Kṛṣṇa uses a poetic ornament of repetition to convey a very important philosophical point about ‘brahma.’ This kind of repeated use of the same word occurs in the Gītā most famously in 9.34 and 18.65, where the verses are almost identical, and Kṛṣṇa uses the word mām six times — just as the word brahma is used here six times. Essentially, both are semantically the same, although the forms are different.
Those verses — 18.65 and 9.34 — are almost identical: man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi. Until this point, both verses are the same. Verse 18.65 adds satyaṁ te pratijāne priyo ’si me, while verse 9.34 concludes with yuktvaivam ātmānaṁ mat-parāyaṇaḥ.
Both these verses contain six occurrences of the word ‘mām’: two in the first line, two in the second, one in the third, and one in the fourth. This is similar to how ‘brahma’ occurs in the present verse — two, two, one, and one.
Furthermore, brahma and mām ultimately refer to the same object. Brahma refers to spirit, and ultimately the highest spiritual reality is Kṛṣṇa. The word ‘mām’ clearly refers to Kṛṣṇa.
From the poetic alliteration point of view, these two words are similar. However, from the semantic content point of view — from the point of view of meaning — an even closer verse is 9.16. There, in a very similar manner to this verse, the word ‘aham’ is used, whereas here it is ‘brahma’:
ahaṁ kratur ahaṁ yajñaḥ svadhāham aham auṣadham
mantro ’ham aham evājyam aham agnir ahaṁ hutam
In fact, in that verse, the word ‘aham’ appears seven times — two, two, one, and two — whereas ‘brahma’ occurs here six times.
The word ‘brahma’ is a generic or nonspecific term for the Absolute Truth, whereas ‘aham’ and ‘mām’ are very clear and specific words for the Absolute Truth — they clearly refer to Kṛṣṇa. In the tenth chapter, Arjuna explicitly states that Kṛṣṇa is the Paraṁ Brahma. In that sense, the words ‘brahma’ and ‘aham’ ultimately refer to the same reality.
It is not that Kṛṣṇa is referred to only as Paraṁ Brahma; rather, the term Paraṁ Brahma is used to distinguish Him from brahma. However, many times in scripture the word brahma is also used to indicate the Absolute Truth.
Scriptural parallels, poetic parallels, or literary ornament parallels aside, let us try to understand the meaning of this verse. Kṛṣṇa is giving us a spiritual vision of sacrifice. He is explaining how a sacrifice, when properly performed, is ultimately spiritual in all its aspects.
The concept of sacrifice was first introduced by Kṛṣṇa in the third chapter, verses 3.9 to 3.16. Now, Kṛṣṇa is stating how everything involved in sacrifice is brahma.
brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir: the offering is to brahma, and the oblation is brahma.
brahmāgnau: the fire is brahma.
brahmaṇā hutam: what is poured out is also brahma.
brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahma-karma-samādhinā: brahma is attained by one who is absorbed in brahma.
Essentially, Kṛṣṇa is stating that brahma is the ultimate destination. Brahma is the active principle, the ingredient, or the component. In essence, everything is brahma.
What does this verse actually mean? Is it simply that everything is spiritual?
There is a principle that ultimately Kṛṣṇa’s energies are all His energies. In that sense, because they come from the one energetic source, they share a fundamental similarity, even though they may appear diverse.
Through the purpose or intention of acting for the Absolute Truth — in the pursuit of the Absolute Truth — even matter can become spiritualized. When something is connected to Kṛṣṇa through the proper consciousness and intention, it is no longer merely material; it takes on a spiritual quality because it is linked to the source of all energies.
The spiritualization here refers to being spiritual in application. It does not necessarily mean that something becomes spiritual in its constitution — it may not be made of sat-cit-ānanda (eternity, knowledge, and bliss) like the soul or the Supreme Lord. However, it becomes spiritualized in application because it is used for a spiritual purpose.
After this verse, Kṛṣṇa will describe various kinds of sacrifices. Before doing so, He first gives a spiritual vision of all sacrifices by stating how everything within them is brahma.
By having this spiritual vision, one can perform sacrifices even within the realm of karma-kāṇḍa. However, those same sacrifices can also be performed with this higher spiritual understanding. When performed with such a spiritual vision, the destination is no longer the attainment of svarga, as would otherwise be the case; rather, the destination is the attainment of brahman.
When the performer of sacrifice meditates on how everything is actually spiritual — “I am a spiritual being, this fire is a manifestation of brahma, and what I am offering into the fire is also brahma” — then the whole process of the oblation being offered and accepted is seen as brahma. When one’s consciousness becomes spiritualized in this way, the person also attains a spiritual destination; the person also becomes spiritualized.
This verse can also be understood in the context of another famous Mahābhārata verse, where Kṛṣṇa compares the Kurukṣetra war to a fire sacrifice. He says that the battlefield of Kurukṣetra is the yajña-kuṇḍa, and the Kauravas are the āhuti, the oblation to be offered. “You, Arjuna, are the brahmaṇaḥ — the priest or the one performing the sacrifice — and the spoon by which the offering is made into the fire is your Gāṇḍīva bow. When you shoot arrows from the Gāṇḍīva bow, the Kauravas will become the oblation falling onto the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Their falling will be as if they have been offered into the yajña-kuṇḍa.”
Kṛṣṇa is essentially telling Arjuna not to have a restricted vision of what is spiritual. Even fighting can be spiritual if one has the right consciousness and sees how ultimately everything can connect us with the spiritual — because everything is coming from the supremely spiritual Lord.
In the previous verse, it was said yajñāyācarataḥ karma. How that ācarataḥ — how that action — can be performed is summarized through this particular verse. Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna that he should not think of his activity of fighting as merely a mundane activity. Even that can be a spiritual activity if performed with spiritual consciousness. With such a vision, this very act of fighting will lead Arjuna to the spiritual destination — brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ.
In this way, Kṛṣṇa, by introducing and emphasizing the terminology of brahman, is elevating Arjuna’s consciousness. Whereas earlier He associated action with material activities — something to be renounced — now He shows that action can also be spiritual. Therefore, it need not be renounced; rather, it can be embraced when performed with proper, purified intention.
Thank you.
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