Krishna compares the Dravya-Yajna — the sacrifice of material oblations — with Jnana-Yajna, and declares that, for cultural self-development, Jnana-Yajna is any day nobler and diviner than mere formalistic ritualism with material offerings (Dravya-Yajna).
In the second line of the verse the Lord explains how and why He considers “the sacrifice of ‘ignorance’in Knowledge” (Jnana-Yajna) as greater and nobler than “the sacrifice of food and other materials in the sacred fire” (Dravya-Yajna). Ritualistic Karmas produce results to enjoy which the individual ego has to take up new manifestations, wherein again, he has yet to undertake and perform more and more activities. Karma never ends Karma, and therefore, action cannot be a complete fulfilment in itself.
On the other hand, Right-Knowledge (Jnana) ends all Karmas, once and for all, inasmuch as the deluded-ego destroys itself in the light-of-Self-Knowledge. We have already seen that ‘ignorance’causes ‘desires,’ and desires are the seeds from which all actions arise. When this ‘ignorance,’ the primary source of all activities, ends at the dawn of ‘Knowledge,’ all actions naturally get fulfilled. Therefore, “ALL ACTION IN ITS ENTIRETY, O PARTHA, ATTAINS ITS CONSUMMATION IN KNOWLEDGE.”
IF THUS, BY ‘KNOWLEDGE’ ALONE WE CAN REALLY GAIN THE FULLEST SATISFACTION, THEN HOW ARE WE TO GAIN THIS ‘KNOWLEDGE’ BY WHICH ALL ACTIONS CAN AT ONCE BE BURNT UP AND EXHAUSTED?
