Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 - JnanaKarmaSanyasa Yoga - Sloka 33

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

Varieties of sacrifices - 23-33

1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 4 -JnanaKarmaSanyasa Yoga - Sloka 33

Shreyan dravya mayat yagyat  gyan yagyah param tapa I

Sarva karma akhilam partha gyane parisamapyate II sloka 33

श्रेयान द्रव्य मयात  यज्ञात ज्ञान यज्ञः परम् तप ।

सर्व कर्म अखिलं पार्थ ज्ञाने परिसमाप्यते ।। श्लोक ३३ 

Knowledge-sacrifice O scorcher of foes, is superior to wealth-sacrifice. All karma in its entirety, O Partha culminates in knowledge. 

Man lives to add more and yet more to his wisdom, and not to multiply his material possessions beyond proportion. Things material cannot be made more use of than the requirement. Over-possession fosters care and anxiety. He who gives himself over too much to mammon pays the penalty in the form of being lopsided or stunted in intelligence. The man becomes earth-bound beyond redemption. Knowledge on the other hand, develops into wisdom. It embellishes the personality, aids one to discern between self and the non-self and leads man into enlightenment and liberation.

Magnificent temples attendant with elaborate and awe-inspiring ritualistic worship serve more to make man earthy than enlightened, more superstitious than spiritual, more drawn to the priests than the prophets. A neat little sanctuary, on the other hand, serving as a symbol of the human tabernacle, takes man more effectively godward. It tends towards jnana-yagna.  The feeling that the mind has to be kept as fresh and pure as a flower is more conducive to spiritual growth  and enlightenment. than offering a heap of it on the altar. The knowing man has less of the problems of life than the ignorant one. It is knowledge to intuit that one is atman and not body. In that knowledge the karma of that individual gets absolved. 

 He is verily a man who has made money his slave; he is not fit to be called a man who doesnot know how to make use of money.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa