Through all activities of life one can constantly live in the spirit of “devout offering” unto the Supreme. Throughout the Geeta it has been, time without number, insisted upon that the mental attitude is of supreme importance, rather than the mere physical act. And, this is a fact which ordinarily the seekers forget.

All acts of perception and our reactions to the perceived, be they on the physical, mental, or intellectual levels, make them all a “DEVOUT OFFERING UNTO HIM.” In fact, this is not an unnecessary make-belief or a mere fancied exaggeration. Nor is it in any way, very difficult for an individual to practise. The one Self revels everywhere: in the teacher, in the devotee and in the Lord. In all our life’s transactions we behave, act and deal with other names and forms, and all of them, we know, require the Existence of the Self to uphold them. To remember the Self during all transactions of life is to remember the Substratum. In a cloth shop where there are cotton clothes of different colours and sizes, textures and prices, the shop-keeper is advised always to remember that he is dealing with cotton clothings. This cannot be very difficult for any sane shop-keeper, and it will be safe and profitable for him to remember this fact, for it would prevent him from entertaining misconceptions and thereby either charging the exorbitant prices of woollens, or selling off his goods as cheap as gunny bags! If a goldsmith is asked to remember that he is working on gold, it is only for his own benefit.

Just as cotton is in all cloth, gold in all ornaments, the Self is the Essential-stuff in all names and forms. A devotee who can constantly remember the Divine in all his contacts in life, is alone the one who can give to life the respect and reverence that it deserves. It is a law in life that as you give unto life, so shall life give unto you. Smile at life and life smiles; frown at life and life frowns at you; approach life with due reverence and respect, born out of the cognition of the Divine essence in it, and life shall respect and revere you.

When all activities are performed in the Spirit-of-Offering, not only our love for the Supreme increases but also our entire life becomes sanctified with a noble purpose and a divine aim. In the context of the Geeta’s insistence on single-pointedness of mind, and devoted contemplation of the Self, so far described, we can easily see how this stanza provides us again with an efficient and secret method by which the seekers are unconsciously made to remember the Supreme constantly — not in the deep jungles, nor in the secret caves, but right in the field of life’s contentions.

WHAT WOULD BE THE EFFECT OF SUCH A MANNER OF LIVING LIFE IN THE PURE SPIRIT OF DEDICATED OFFERING?… LISTEN:

O son of Kunti, yat-karosi, whatever you do, what comes spontaneously; [Actions such as walking etc. that are spontaneous,not injunctions of the scriptures.] yad-asnasi, whatever you eat; and yat-juhosi, whatever you offer as a sacrifice, whatever sacrifices you perform-be it prescribed by the Vedas or by the Smrtis; yatadadasi, whatever you give-gold, food, clarified butter, etc. to Brahmanas and others; and yat-tapasyasi, whatever austerties you undertake; (all) tat, that; kurusva madarpanam, you offer to Me. ‘Hear what happens to you when you act thus.’