Sanskrit
अहं क्रतुरहं यज्ञः स्वधाऽहमहमौषधम् । मन्त्रोऽहमहमेवाज्यमहमग्निरहं हुतम् ॥
ahaṃ kratur ahaṃ yajñaḥ svadhāham aham auṣadham mantro'ham aham evājyam aham agnir ahaṃ hutam
Translation
I the ablation; I the sacrifice; I the ancestral offering; I the fire-giving herb; the mantram I; I also the butter; I the fire; the burnt-offering I;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Opens a four-verse run (16-19) of pure identification — Krishna claims to be every component of Vedic ritual: the offering, the sacrifice, the mantra, the fire. The rhetorical effect is to make external ritual logically redundant: if Krishna is already every part of the sacrifice, treating him as a separate object to sacrifice “to” is the category confusion the text is quietly inviting the listener to notice.