Bhagavad Gita 3.14
अन्नाद्भवन्ति भूतानि पर्जन्यादन्नसम्भवः । यज्ञाद्भवति पर्जन्यो यज्ञः कर्मसमुद्भवः ॥
annād bhavanti bhūtāni parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ | yajñād bhavati parjanyo yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ ||
Translation
From food are born all creatures; the production of food is from rain; rain is produced by sacrifice; and sacrifice is the result of action.
Reflection
Which link in the chain you depend on have you been pretending you owe nothing to?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Three
The wheel laid out in one line. Beings, food, rain, sacrifice, action. Each link a noun, no verbs to soften the chain. Karma-samudbhava: action is the origin. The chapter has been arguing for action and now shows the cosmological reason: action is the first turn that makes the rest possible. Shankara: this is not metaphor. The exchange is structural, not decorative. Aurobindo reads the verse as the moment the Gita refuses any spirituality that does not put hands on the work. The chain breaks if any link refuses. The man who does nothing is not innocent. He is the broken link.