1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 3 - Karma Yoga - Sloka 14

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.

The Wheel of Life 14-16

1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 3 - Karma Yoga - Sloka 14

Annat bhavanti bhutani parjanyat anna sambhavah I
Yagyat bhavati parjanyah yagyah karma samudbhavah II sloka 14

अन्नात भवन्ति भूतानि पर्जन्यत अन्न संभवः .

यज्ञात भवति पर्जन्यः यज्ञः कर्म समुद्भवः .. श्लोक १४ 

From food beings come; from rain is food produced; from yajna rain proceeds; yajna is born of karma.

Work performed with the right frame of mind gets converted into yajna. The effect of that work assumes a subtle force which in the vedic parlance is known as apurva. This point can be clarified through 2 concrete examples. The sun converts the sea water into the invisible vapour which is equivalent to apurva. In its turn the vapour becomes rain. The rubbish consigned to fire changes itself into the invisible carbondioxide. It is apurva in this state. It then forms food for plants assimilated by their leaves. Similarly man's yajna changes into mental force which alone in reality is apurva. The thought or feelings while chanting syllables in yajna become mantras or mental forces. The purer the man and his motive, the stronger is the mental force. It is the intensity of the force of kind that becomes apurva. Influenced and regulated by it the rainfall occurs to people on earth. The production of grains for food depends on the availability of water caused by rain. That beings thrive on food is self evident.