Bhagavad Gita 4.28
द्रव्ययज्ञास्तपोयज्ञा योगयज्ञास्तथापरे । स्वाध्यायज्ञानयज्ञाश्च यतयः संशितव्रताः ॥
dravya-yajñās tapo-yajñā yoga-yajñās tathāpare | svādhyāya-jñāna-yajñāś ca yatayaḥ saṃśita-vratāḥ ||
Translation
Some perform sacrifices of wealth, others of austerity, others of yoga; while others, ascetics of strict vows, perform sacrifices of study and of knowledge.
Reflection
What discipline of yours have you been refusing to call a practice because it does not look like one?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Four
The catalog widens. Sacrifice of wealth. Sacrifice of austerity. Sacrifice of yoga. Sacrifice of study. Sacrifice of knowledge. Saṃśita-vratāḥ, the strict-voved. The verse refuses the narrow definition: any disciplined offering of a part of life back into the larger order qualifies. The reader who never lit a homa fire is being told he has nonetheless been performing yajna, possibly without naming it. The verse is generous and exacting at once.