3.13 — Food, rain and the turning wheel

Sanskrit · Teaching film · Everyday practice

Speaker: Krishna, addressing Arjuna.

The shloka

यज्ञशिष्टाशिनः सन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषैः ।
भुञ्जते ते त्वघं पापा ये पचन्त्यात्मकारणात् ॥ १३ ॥

Brief meaning

The good, who eat what remains after the offering, are freed from all fault. Those who cook only for their own sake eat wrongdoing itself.

In the conversation

Krishna praises those who eat what remains after offering, and traces a cycle: beings live on food, food comes from rain, rain from yajña, and yajña from action. That action is rooted in sacred knowledge and the imperishable. Whoever refuses to take part in this turning wheel, and lives only for pleasure, lives in vain.

Word by word

यज्ञशिष्टाशिनः सन्तः

The good, who eat what remains after yajña,

मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषैः

are freed from all faults.

भुञ्जते ते तु अघम् पापाः

But the wrongdoers eat wrong itself,

ये पचन्ति आत्मकारणात्

those who cook only for their own sake.

Going deeper

Yajña śiṣṭa means what remains after the offering. This idea lives on in the custom of prasāda, food offered first and then shared. The cakra, the wheel, links food, rain, offering and action into one turning cycle. Akṣara means the imperishable, and Brahman here is often read as the Veda. Moghaṃ means in vain: a life that only takes from the wheel misses its purpose.

Everyday reflection

In many homes a first portion of food is offered before anyone eats. The gesture is small, yet it places the meal within a larger story of rain, soil, labour and grace. Try it today, in whatever form fits your tradition: a pause, a prayer, a word of thanks. Notice whether eating feels different afterwards. Where does your daily life connect with the cycle that sustains everyone?

Consider today: Before eating, pause to offer thanks for the food.