Sanskrit
कर्म ब्रह्मोद्भवं विद्धि ब्रह्माक्षरसमुद्भवम् । तस्मात्सर्वगतं ब्रह्म नित्यं यज्ञे प्रतिष्ठितम् ॥
karma brahmodbhavaṃ viddhi brahmākṣarasamudbhavam tasmāt sarvagataṃ brahma nityaṃ yajñe pratiṣṭhitam
Translation
Know thou that from Brahma action groweth, and Brahma from the Imperishable cometh. Therefore the Eternal, the all-permeating, is ever present in sacrifice.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Verse 14’s chain gets its metaphysical anchor: action traces back to Brahman, and Brahman to the Imperishable (akṣara) — so the all-pervading Eternal is, by this logic, literally present within every act of sacrifice. This is the highest point the cosmological argument reaches before verse 16 turns it back into ethical language with the wheel metaphor. The move is to lift ordinary work into contact with the absolute: if Brahman is present in the act of offering, then karma-yoga is not a lesser path but a direct one. Chapter 4’s BG 4.24 makes this explicit — offering, offerer, and fire are all Brahman.
Study deeper
Word by word
- karma brahmodbhavaṃ viddhiकर्म ब्रह्मोद्भवं विद्धि
- know action to arise from Brahman (karma + brahma-udbhavam + viddhi)
- brahmākṣarasamudbhavamब्रह्माक्षरसमुद्भवं
- Brahman arising from the Imperishable (brahma + akṣara-samudbhavam)
- tasmāt sarvagataṃ brahmaतस्मात् सर्वगतं ब्रह्म
- therefore the all-pervading Brahman (tasmāt + sarvagatam + brahma)
- nityaṃ yajñe pratiṣṭhitamनित्यं यज्ञे प्रतिष्ठितं
- is ever established in sacrifice (nityam + yajñe + pratiṣṭhitam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The claim is oddly specific for something described as all-pervading: Brahman isn’t just present everywhere in general, it’s said to be “ever present in sacrifice” in particular. An unlocatable, all-permeating reality is here given something close to an address — the verse localizes the infinite just enough to make it practically approachable through one specific act.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- When a value you hold feels too abstract and diffuse to actually practice — compassion, integrity — pick one specific, recurring act where you deliberately locate it. An unlocatable ideal becomes usable once you give it a concrete place to show up.
Professional
- When a company value is too diffuse to act on — 'innovation,' 'excellence' — anchor it to one specific, recurring practice your team owns, like a weekly retro or a design review. Give the abstract value an actual address in your process.
Family & Social
- When 'being a good partner' or 'being present' feels too vague to hold onto, pick one specific recurring moment — a nightly check-in, a weekly outing — where you deliberately locate that value. The abstraction becomes real once it has a fixed place to live.
Ask yourself
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