Bhagavad Gita 18.5
यज्ञदानतपःकर्म न त्याज्यं कार्यमेव तत् । यज्ञो दानं तपश्चैव पावनानि मनीषिणाम् ॥
yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma na tyājyaṃ kāryam eva tat / yajño dānaṃ tapaś caiva pāvanāni manīṣiṇām
Translation
The works of sacrifice, gift, and austerity are not to be abandoned. They must be done. Sacrifice, gift, and austerity are purifiers of the thoughtful.
Reflection
Which of sacrifice, gift, austerity have you quietly abandoned, and what coarsened in you because of it?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eighteen
Krishna sides decisively with the second camp from verse three. The triad of yajna, dana, tapas is not optional spiritual decoration. It is the cleansing fire that any inward life depends on. Sacrifice trains the giving muscle. Gift trains the loosening of grip. Austerity trains the body and tongue and mind to take direction. Drop them and the inner instrument coarsens. Krishna is being unusually direct here. Not just permission to keep them but a command, kartavyam, they must be done. The renunciate who walks away from these three is not advanced. He is unfinished.