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या देवी सर्वभूतेषु शक्तिरूपेण संस्थिता
नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः

Aligning Consciousness

Ch 4Verse 31
Adhyāya 4 Shloka 31

यज्ञशिष्टामृतभुजो यान्ति ब्रह्म सनातनम् | नायं लोकोऽस्त्ययज्ञस्य कुतोऽन्य: कुरुसत्तम || ३१ ||

yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo yānti brahma sanātanam | nāyaṃ loko 'sty ayajñasya kuto 'nyaḥ kuru-sattama || 31 ||

"O best of the Kuru dynasty, without sacrifice one can never live happily on this planet or in this life: what then of the next? But those who taste the nectar of the remnants of sacrifice go to the supreme eternal atmosphere."

Historical Context

The Direct Meaning

Krishna concludes the section on the varieties of sacrifice with an absolute, binary rule. Those who consume the nectar-like remnants of sacrifice (yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo) attain the eternal, Supreme Absolute (yānti brahma sanātanam). However, for the person who performs no sacrifice at all (ayajñasya), even this current material world is miserable and inaccessible (nāyaṃ loko 'sty). Krishna then asks a devastating rhetorical question: If they cannot even be happy in this world, how can they possibly be happy in the next (kuto 'nyaḥ)?

Translated from the original Sanskrit text

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