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.
Concepts