Bhagavad Gita - Chapter IV:
Transcendental Knowledge
Text 21
Sanskrit working: English Wording:
Such a man of understanding acts with mind and intelligence perfectly
controlled, gives up all sense of proprietorship over his possessions,
and acts only for the bare necessities of life. Thus working, he is not
affected by sinful reactions.
Purport: A Krishna conscious person is always dovetailed with the supreme desire, for he has no desire for personal sense gratification. He moves exactly like a part of a machine. As a machine part requires oiling and cleaning for maintenance, so a Krishna conscious man maintains himself by his work just to remain fit for action in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, He is therefore immune to all the reactions of his endeavors. Like an animal, he has no proprietorship even over his own body. A cruel proprietor of an animal sometimes kills the animal in his possession, yet the animal does not protest. Nor does it have any real independence. A Krishna conscious person, fully engaged in self-realization, has very little time to falsely possess any material object. For maintaining body and soul, he does not require unfair means of accumulating money. He does not, therefore, become contaminated by such material sins. He is free from all reactions to his actions.
Text 22
Sanskrit working:  English Wording:
He who is satisfied with gain which comes of its own accord, who is free from duality and does not envy, who is steady in both success and failure, is never entangled, although performing actions. Purport: A Krishna conscious person does not make much endeavor even to maintain his body. He is satisfied with gains which are obtained of their own accord. He neither begs nor borrows, but he labors honestly as far as is in his power, and is satisfied with whatever is obtained by his own honest labor. He is therefore independent in his livelihood. He does not allow anyone's service to hamper his own service in Krishna consciousness. However, for the service of the Lord he can participate in any kind of action without being disturbed by the duality of the material world. The duality of the material world is felt in terms of heat and cold, or misery and happiness. A Krishna con- scious person is above duality because he does not hesitate to act in any way for the satisfaction of Krishna. Therefore he is steady both in success and in failure. These signs are visible when one is fully in transcendental knowledge.
Text 23
Sanskrit working:  English Wording:
The work of a man who is unattached to the modes of material nature and who is fully situated in transcendental knowledge merges entirely into transcendence.
Purport:
 English Wording:
A person who is fully absorbed in Krishna 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.
Purport: The more the activities of the material world are performed in Krishna consciousness, or for Visnu only, the more the atmosphere becomes spiritualized by com- plete absorption. The word brahma (Brahman) means "spiritual." The Lord is spiritual, and the rays of His transcendental body are called brahmajyoti. His spiritual effulgence. Everything that exists is situated in that brahmajyoti, but when thejyoti is covered by illusion (mayo) or sense gratification, it is called material. This material veil can be removed at once by Krishna consciousness; thus the offering for the sake of Krishna consciousness, the consuming agent of such an offering or contribution, the process of consumption, the contributor, and the result are�all combined together�Brahman, or the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth covered by mayd is called matter. Matter dovetailed for the cause of the Absolute Truth regains its spiritual quality. Krishna consciousness is the process of converting the illusory consciousness into Brahman, or the Supreme. When the mind is fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness, it is said to be in samddhi, or trance. Anything done in such transcendental consciousness is called yajna, or sacrifice for the Absolute. In that condition of spiritual consciousness, the contributor, the contribution, the consumption, the performer or leader of the performance, and the result or ultimate gain�everything�becomes one in the Absolute, the Supreme Brahman. That is the method of Krishna consciousness.
 English Wording:
Some yogis perfectly worship the demigods by offering different sacrifices to them, and some offer sacrifices in the fire of the Su- preme Brahman.
Purport:
As described above, a person engaged in discharging duties in Krishna
consciousness is also called a perfect yogi or a first-class mystic. But
there are others also, who perform similar sacrifices in the worship
of demigods, and still others who sacrifice to the Supreme Brahman,
or the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord. So there are different
kinds of sacrifices in terms of different categories. Such different
categories of sacrifice by different types of performers only superfi-
cially demark varieties of sacrifice.
Factually sacrifice means to satisfy the Supreme Lord, Visnu, who is also known as Yajna. All the different varieties of sacrifice can be placed within two primary divisions: namely, sacrifice of worldly possessions and sacrifice in pursuit of transcendental knowledge. Those who are in Krishna con- sciousness sacrifice all material possessions for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, while others, who want some temporary material happiness, sacrifice their material possessions to satisfy demigods such as Indra, the sun-god, etc. And others, who are impersonalists, sacrifice their identity by merging into the existence of impersonal Brahman. The demigods are powerful living entities appointed by the Supreme Lord for the maintenance and supervision of all material functions like the heating, watering and lighting of the universe. Those who are interested in material benefits worship the demigods by various sacrifices according to the Vedic rituals. They are called bahv-isvara-vadi, or believers in many gods. But others, who worship the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth and regard the forms of the demigods as temporary, sacrifice their individual selves in the supreme fire and thus end their individual existences by merging into the existence of the Supreme. Such impel sonalists sacrifice their time in philosophical speculation to understand the transcendental nature of the Supreme. In other words, the fruitive workers sacrifice their material possessions for material enjoyment, whereas the impersonalist sacrifices his material designations with a view to merging into the existence of the Supreme. For the impersonalist, the fire altar of sacrifice is the Supreme Brahman, and the offering is the self being consumed by the fire of Brahman. The Krishna con- scious person, like Arjun, however, sacrifices everything for the satisfaction of Krishna, and thus all his material possessions as well as his own self�everything -is sacrificed for Krishna. Thus, he is the first-class yogi; but he does not lose his individual existence. Text 26
Sanskrit working: English Wording:
Some [the unadulterated brahmacaris sacrifice the hearing process and the senses in the fire of mental control, and others [the regulated householders] sacrifice the objects of the senses in the fire of the senses.
Purport:
The members of the four divisions of human life, namely the
brahmacari, the grhastha, the vanaprastha and the sannyasi, are all
meant to become perfect yogis or transcendentalists. Since human
life is not meant for our enjoying sense gratification like the animals,
the four orders of human life are so arranged that one may become
perfect in spiritual life. The brahmacaris, or students under the care
of a bona fide spiritual master, control the mind by abstaining from
sense gratification. A brahmacari hears only words concerning
Krishna consciousness; hearing is the basic principle for under-
standing, and therefore the pure brahmacari engages fully in harer
namanukirtanam�chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord. He
restrains himself from the vibrations of material sounds, and his
hearing is engaged in the transcendental sound vibration of Hare
Krishna, Hare Krishna.
Similarly, the householders, who have some license for sense gratification, perform such acts with great restraint. Sex life, intoxication and meat-eating are general tendencies of human society, but a regulated householder does not indulge in unrestricted sex life and other sense gratification. Marriage on the principles of religious life is therefore current in all civilized human society because that is the way for restricted sex life. This restricted, unattached sex life is also a kind of yajna because the restricted householder sacrifices his general tendency toward sense gratification for higher, transcendental life. Text 27
Sanskrit working:
Others, who are interested in achieving self-realization through control of the mind and senses, offer the functions of all the senses, and of the life breath, as oblations into the fire of the controlled mind.
Purport:
The yoga system conceived by Patanjali is referred to herein. In the
Yoga-sutra of Patarijali, the soul is called pratyag-atma and parag-
atma. As long as the soul is attached to sense enjoyment it is called
parag-atma, but as soon as the same soul becomes detached from
such sense enjoyment it is called pratyag-atma. The soul is subjected
to the functions often kinds of air at work within the body, and this
is perceived through the breathing system. The Patanjali system of
yoga instructs one on how to control the functions of the body's air
in a technical manner so that ultimately all the functions of the air
within become favorable for purifying the soul of material attach-
ment. According to this yoga system, pralyag-atma is the ultimate goal. This pratyag-almd is withdrawn from activities in matter. The senses interact with the sense objects, like the ear for hearing, eyes for seeing, nose for smelling, tongue for tasting, hand for touching, and all of them are thus engaged in activities outside the self. They are called the functions of the prana-vayu. The apana-vayu goes downwards, vyana-vayu acts to shrink and expand, samana-vdyu adjusts equilibrium, udana-vdyu goes upwards�and when one is enlightened, one engages all these in searching for self-realization.
 English Wording:
Having accepted strict vows, some become enlightened by sacrificing their possessions, and other; Dy performing severe austerities, by practicing the yoga of eightfold mysticism, or by studying the Vedas to advance in transcendental knowledge.
Purport: For example, under the cdturmdsya vow the candidate does not shave for four months during the year (July to October), he does not eat certain foods, does not eat twice in a day or does not leave home. Such sacrifice of the comforts of life is called tapomaya-yajna. There are still others who engage themselves in different kinds of mystic yogas like the Patanjali system (for merging into the existence of the Absolute), or hatha-yoga or astdnga-yoga (for particular perfections). And some travel to all the sanctified places of pilgrimage. All these practices are called yoga-yajna, sacrifice for a certain type of perfection in the material world. There are others who engage themselves in the studies of different Vedic literatures, specifically the Upanisads and Veddnta- sutras, or the Sankhya philosophy. All of these are called svddhydya- yajna, or engagement in the sacrifice of studies. All these yogis are faithfully engaged in different types of sacrifice and are seeking a higher status of life. Krishna consciousness, however, is different from these because it is the direct service of the Supreme Lord. Krishna consciousness cannot be attained by any one of the above-mentioned types of sacrifice but can be attained only by the mercy of the Lord and His bona fide devotees. Therefore, Krishna consciousness is transcendental.
Text 29
Sanskrit working: English Wording:
Still others, who are inclined to the process of breath restraint to remain in trance, practice by offering the movement of the outgoing breath into the incoming, and the incoming breath into the out- going, and thus at last remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Others, curtailing the eating process, offer the outgoing breath into itself as a sacrifice.
Purport: "One who engages in unalloyed devotional service to the Lord transcends the modes of material nature and is immediately elevated to the spiritual platform." A Krishna conscious person begins from the transcendental stage, and he is constantly in that consciousness. Therefore, there is no falling down, and ultimately he enters into the abode of the Lord without delay. The practice of reduced eating is automatically done when one eats only Krishna-prasadam, or food which is offered first to the Lord. Reducing the eating process is very helpful in the matter of sense control. And without sense control there is no possibility of getting out of the material entanglement.
Sanskrit working: 
English wording:
All these performers who know the meaning of sacrifice become cleansed of sinful reactions, and, having tasted the nectar of the results of sacrifices, they advance toward the supreme eternal atmosphere.
Purport:
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