Sanskrit
एवं बहुविधा यज्ञा वितता ब्रह्मणो मुखे । कर्मजान्विद्धि तान्सर्वानेवं ज्ञात्वा विमोक्ष्यसे ॥
evaṃ bahu-vidhā yajñā vitatā brahmaṇo mukhe karma-jān viddhi tān sarvān evaṃ jñātvā vimokṣyase
Translation
Many and various sacrifices are thus spread out before the Eternal. Know thou that all these are born of action, and thus knowing thou shalt be free.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
After twenty verses of specific practices, the text steps back to name what they all have in common: every one of these sacrifices is karma-ja, born of action, and grasping that fact is itself what frees a person, vimokṣyase. This is where Chapter 4’s teaching folds directly back into Chapter 3’s: 3.9’s claim that action performed as yajña does not bind is being generalized here into a full taxonomy — whatever form the action-as-offering takes, it belongs to the same category, and it’s understanding the category, not mastering any particular technique within it, that liberates. Brahmaṇo mukhe — “at the mouth of Brahman” — pictures every one of these offerings entering the same fire. What liberates is seeing the category, not perfecting the method; that is why BG 4.33 can then rank knowledge above all of them.
Study deeper
Word by word
- evaṃ bahu-vidhā yajñāएवं बहु-विधा यज्ञा
- thus sacrifices of many kinds (evam + bahu-vidhāḥ + yajñāḥ)
- vitatā brahmaṇo mukheवितता ब्रह्मणो मुखे
- are spread out at the mouth of Brahman (vitatāḥ + brahmaṇaḥ + mukhe)
- karma-jān viddhi tān sarvānकर्म-जान् विद्धि तान् सर्वान्
- know them all as born of action (karma-jān + viddhi + tān + sarvān)
- evaṃ jñātvā vimokṣyaseएवं ज्ञात्वा विमोक्ष्यसे
- knowing thus, you will be freed (evam + jñātvā + vimokṣyase)
Commentary
Site Commentary
This verse does two jobs the surrounding text doesn’t ask it to combine: it closes the twenty-verse catalogue that opened at verse 25, and it opens the case for wisdom’s supremacy that verse 33 makes explicit. “Know that all these are born of action” looks backward at everything just listed; “thus knowing thou shalt be free” looks forward to why knowledge, not any item on that list, is about to be named the more important thing. A single verse is doing the work of a chapter break.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice when a single moment in your life is doing double duty — closing out one phase of effort while quietly setting up the next. Naming what you just finished and naming what it's opening up, in the same breath, is how transitions actually get processed instead of blurring together unnoticed.
Professional
- A good retrospective or project close-out does two things at once — it accounts for everything just completed and it sets the direction for what comes next; treat that meeting as a genuine hinge rather than either just a debrief or just a kickoff, since doing only one half wastes the moment.
Family & Social
- A single honest conversation can both close out an old grievance and open a better understanding going forward — don't split it into two separate conversations you keep postponing; the closing and the opening often need to happen in the same breath to actually land.
Ask yourself
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