How sacrifice gives back: gods and people nourish one another, and so reach the highest good.
The verse looks like a simple trade of offerings for rain and reward, yet its weight falls on the word "mutually." What it teaches is not a clever bargain but an order of giving that runs both ways, in which your right place is as one who gives back rather than only draws.
Nourish the gods with this, and let the gods nourish you. Nourishing one another, you shall attain the highest good.
It answers the practical question left by the verse before it: how does sacrifice actually deliver the things people want, and Krishna replies with a cycle of mutual nourishing, the human offering rising and the divine gift coming down.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
Sacrifice is no empty rite; by it you feed the shining powers that preside over nature, and pleased by your offering they send the rain that becomes your food, so the giving rises and the gift comes down and the whole order sustains itself.
Across Advaita, Bhedābheda, Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Bhāskara · Śrīdhara · Puruṣottama · Ramsukhdas · Sivananda · Jñāneśvar · Tilak · BaladevaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 10 others’ words
This verse answers a practical question raised by the one before it: how does sacrifice actually deliver the things people want? Krishna's answer is a cycle of mutual nourishing. The Sanskrit word here is bhavayata, 'nourish' or 'foster.' By sacrifice (yajna) you feed and gratify the gods (devas), the shining powers such as Indra who preside over the forces of nature. Pleased by your offerings, those same gods nourish you in return, chiefly by sending rain, which produces food. So the human offering goes up and the divine gift comes down, and the system sustains itself.
Notice the word that holds it together: mutually. The giving runs both ways and neither side can be left out, and so existence shows itself as an order of shared giving, where your place is to be a giver and not one who only hoards.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, Bhedābheda, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Puruṣottama · Ramsukhdas · Śrīdhara · Bhāskara · JñāneśvarIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 7 others’ words
The key word in the verse is 'mutually' (parasparam): the giving runs both ways and neither side can be left out. The commentators stress that this is reciprocity, not one-sided taking. You strengthen the gods by your share of the offering; they strengthen you in return; the order holds together precisely because each nourishes the other. Several read this as a moral picture of the whole world: existence is an order of mutual giving, not a stage for one-sided extraction, and a person's right place in it is as a giver rather than a hoarder.
Where this cycle of mutual nourishing leads is called the highest good, and that highest answers to your own aim: the one who acts for enjoyment is carried toward heaven, while the one who offers without grasping lets the same act ripen into knowledge and release.
Across Advaita, Bhedābheda, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Bhāskara · Sivananda · Ānandagiri · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Bhāskara, and 3 others’ words
By this cycle of mutual nourishing you reach 'the highest good' (shreyah param). Many commentators read this 'highest' deliberately as having two possible levels, depending on the aspirant's own aim. For the one who seeks enjoyment, the fruit is heaven (svarga), a real but lesser good. For the one who seeks liberation, the same path of selfless offering, by gradually maturing into knowledge, leads to release (moksha). The fruit, in other words, follows the motive of the doer.
And for those who see the Lord within, the gods are not separate powers but His body, with Him as their inner self; so worship of the deity is worship of the indwelling Lord, who meets you through every act rightly offered.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, ŚuddhādvaitaRāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Baladeva · Vallabha · PuruṣottamaIn Rāmānuja, Vedānta Deśika, and 3 others’ words
For the theistic commentators the gods are not independent powers; they are the body or the limbs of the Lord, with the Lord as their inner self. On this reading worshipping the deity is in truth worshipping the indwelling Lord, who is the real enjoyer of every sacrifice. The mutual fostering then becomes the visible sign that the Lord, present within each deity, meets the worshipper through every act rightly offered.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Advaita Vedānta, in their fuller words
These commentators take the gods straightforwardly as Indra and the other presiding deities, and the nourishing as literal sacrifice answered by rain and food. Their distinctive move is to read 'the highest good' as an option that splits by the aspirant's aim: the seeker of enjoyment gains heaven, while the seeker of liberation, through this same selfless action gradually ripening into knowledge of the Self, gains release from birth and death. One raises the objection directly: without the gods' favour no heavenly prosperity is won, and without right vision the highest good cannot be reached at all, so the verse must allow both fruits depending on the doer's motive.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
Here the gods 'have Me for their inner self and are My body'; worshipping them is really worshipping the Lord, who declares himself the enjoyer and lord of all sacrifices. This school works hardest at the mechanism. It answers a chain of objections: that growth cannot come from sacrifice (reply: worship itself is the worshipper's enhancement); that a momentary act cannot yield a later fruit (reply: the deity's pleasure becomes an unseen potency, apurva, that ripens into the fruit, and even in cosmic dissolution the supreme deity preserves it); that scripture says there is 'no other path' to release than knowledge (reply: sacrifice causes release only indirectly, as a component supporting knowledge); and that the worldly pleasures of heaven do not fit a liberation-seeker's path (reply: worship of the deity is also worship of the inner Lord). The qualifier 'highest' (paramam) is read as marking off liberation from heaven.
Bhedābheda, in their fuller words
This reading keeps the literal cycle: nourish the gods with their portion, and they, Indra and the rest, nourish you with rain and abundance. Like the Advaitins it splits the fruit by desire, those who want heaven gain heaven and those who want release gain release. It then sharpens the verse's ethical edge by adding the warning that follows: the gods gratified by sacrifice give the desired enjoyments, but one who enjoys their gifts without offering back is simply a thief. The reciprocity is thus not optional courtesy but a debt that must be repaid.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators read the gods as the deities presiding over the various works, and the offering as increasing divinity in them so that they in turn increase in you the very instruments by which works are done. The decisive point is that the natural reciprocity is itself an arrangement of Bhagavan: the Lord, indwelling as the form of the deity, meets the worshipper through every act rightly offered. One treats this verse and the one before it as a single continuous passage whose full unfolding stands at the earlier verse.
Kashmir Śaiva, in their fuller words
This is the most strikingly inward reading. Even one whose chief aim is release should 'serve the objects.' The 'gods' are taken as the operations of the senses, the goddesses of the senses known in the secret scriptures. 'Gladden them by this action' means: enjoy sense-objects as far as is fitting. Being gladdened, the senses in turn gladden you with releases that befit the self's own nature, since their true nature is the yoga of abiding in oneself. In the ceaseless rhythm of emergence and absorption, this mutual fostering, marked by the gladdening of the senses and the coming-to-be of the self, swiftly reaches the supreme good, Brahman, whose mark is the melting-away of all mutual difference.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
These devotional commentators keep the cycle of offering and rain, but several deepen 'nourish' into affection. One glosses bhavayata as making the gods loving and filled with loving regard, gladdening them, so the relation becomes warm rather than merely transactional. One reads the verse through following one's own dharma: when you live your religion, the deities are propitiated, supply your livelihood, and reciprocal affection grows until your every aim succeeds. Another grounds the 'highest good' in purity of food: the gods nourish you with pure food, which is a limb of steadfast knowledge, since (as the Sruti says) pure food purifies the inner being, firms the memory, and loosens all the knots that bind.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
The modern commentators draw out the verse's ethical and cosmic sense. One renders the mutual giving as pleasing one another into prosperity, with both sides attaining the highest benefit. One reads it as a refusal of one-sided extraction: each god presides over a kind of action, your share of the offering increases the god's capacity to bless the world, and in return you are granted the means for the next round of action, so the deeper teaching is that the world is an order of mutual giving in which the human being should take his place as a giver, not a hoarder. One notes that deva means 'the shining one' and that the highest good may mean either knowledge of the Self that frees from rebirth or the attainment of heaven, the fruit depending on the aspirant's motive.
A few questions to carry
These ask for understanding, not recall; each answer is settled by the commentary itself.
For a second sitting
Carry this with youwhat stays
Carry this verse out of ritual and into daily life: the deeper sense is that the world is not a stage for one-sided extraction but an order of mutual giving. Every gift you receive, the rain, the food, the strength to act, comes to you through a web of powers you did not create. The verse asks you simply to take your place in that order as a giver and not as a hoarder. Before you reach for your share, offer something of yours into the cycle; let your work increase the capacity of others to bless the world, and trust that the means for your next round of action will come back to you in turn. Lived this way, ordinary giving becomes a form of sacrifice, and the highest good is approached not by grasping but by participating.
Before you reach for your share today, offer something of your own into the cycle; let your work increase the capacity of others to bless the world, and trust that the means for your next round of action will come back to you in turn.
Read deeper
Everything a full study holds, folded below.
Word by word
All the commentary, woven together
The commentary, woven together
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
his verse answers a practical question raised by the one before it: how does sacrifice actually deliver the things people want? Krishna's answer is a cycle of mutual nourishing. The Sanskrit word here is bhavayata, 'nourish' or 'foster.' By sacrifice (yajna) you feed and gratify the gods (devas), the shining powers such as Indra who preside over the forces of nature. Pleased by your offerings, those same gods nourish you in return, chiefly by sending rain, which produces food. So the human offering goes up and the divine gift comes down, and the system sustains itself.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar · Lokmanya Tilak · Śrīla Baladeva
The key word in the verse is 'mutually' (parasparam): the giving runs both ways and neither side can be left out. The commentators stress that this is reciprocity, not one-sided taking. You strengthen the gods by your share of the offering; they strengthen you in return; the order holds together precisely because each nourishes the other. Several read this as a moral picture of the whole world: existence is an order of mutual giving, not a stage for one-sided extraction, and a person's right place in it is as a giver rather than a hoarder.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Bhāskara · Sant Jñāneśvar
By this cycle of mutual nourishing you reach 'the highest good' (shreyah param). Many commentators read this 'highest' deliberately as having two possible levels, depending on the aspirant's own aim. For the one who seeks enjoyment, the fruit is heaven (svarga), a real but lesser good. For the one who seeks liberation, the same path of selfless offering, by gradually maturing into knowledge, leads to release (moksha). The fruit, in other words, follows the motive of the doer.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Bhāskara · Swami Sivananda · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
For the theistic commentators the gods are not independent powers; they are the body or the limbs of the Lord, with the Lord as their inner self. On this reading worshipping the deity is in truth worshipping the indwelling Lord, who is the real enjoyer of every sacrifice. The mutual fostering then becomes the visible sign that the Lord, present within each deity, meets the worshipper through every act rightly offered.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīla Baladeva · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators take the gods straightforwardly as Indra and the other presiding deities, and the nourishing as literal sacrifice answered by rain and food. Their distinctive move is to read 'the highest good' as an option that splits by the aspirant's aim: the seeker of enjoyment gains heaven, while the seeker of liberation, through this same selfless action gradually ripening into knowledge of the Self, gains release from birth and death. One raises the objection directly: without the gods' favour no heavenly prosperity is won, and without right vision the highest good cannot be reached at all, so the verse must allow both fruits depending on the doer's motive.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Swami Sivananda
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Here the gods 'have Me for their inner self and are My body'; worshipping them is really worshipping the Lord, who declares himself the enjoyer and lord of all sacrifices. This school works hardest at the mechanism. It answers a chain of objections: that growth cannot come from sacrifice (reply: worship itself is the worshipper's enhancement); that a momentary act cannot yield a later fruit (reply: the deity's pleasure becomes an unseen potency, apurva, that ripens into the fruit, and even in cosmic dissolution the supreme deity preserves it); that scripture says there is 'no other path' to release than knowledge (reply: sacrifice causes release only indirectly, as a component supporting knowledge); and that the worldly pleasures of heaven do not fit a liberation-seeker's path (reply: worship of the deity is also worship of the inner Lord). The qualifier 'highest' (paramam) is read as marking off liberation from heaven.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Bhedabheda
This reading keeps the literal cycle: nourish the gods with their portion, and they, Indra and the rest, nourish you with rain and abundance. Like the Advaitins it splits the fruit by desire, those who want heaven gain heaven and those who want release gain release. It then sharpens the verse's ethical edge by adding the warning that follows: the gods gratified by sacrifice give the desired enjoyments, but one who enjoys their gifts without offering back is simply a thief. The reciprocity is thus not optional courtesy but a debt that must be repaid.
Śrī Bhāskara
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the gods as the deities presiding over the various works, and the offering as increasing divinity in them so that they in turn increase in you the very instruments by which works are done. The decisive point is that the natural reciprocity is itself an arrangement of Bhagavan: the Lord, indwelling as the form of the deity, meets the worshipper through every act rightly offered. One treats this verse and the one before it as a single continuous passage whose full unfolding stands at the earlier verse.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Kashmir Shaivism
This is the most strikingly inward reading. Even one whose chief aim is release should 'serve the objects.' The 'gods' are taken as the operations of the senses, the goddesses of the senses known in the secret scriptures. 'Gladden them by this action' means: enjoy sense-objects as far as is fitting. Being gladdened, the senses in turn gladden you with releases that befit the self's own nature, since their true nature is the yoga of abiding in oneself. In the ceaseless rhythm of emergence and absorption, this mutual fostering, marked by the gladdening of the senses and the coming-to-be of the self, swiftly reaches the supreme good, Brahman, whose mark is the melting-away of all mutual difference.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
These devotional commentators keep the cycle of offering and rain, but several deepen 'nourish' into affection. One glosses bhavayata as making the gods loving and filled with loving regard, gladdening them, so the relation becomes warm rather than merely transactional. One reads the verse through following one's own dharma: when you live your religion, the deities are propitiated, supply your livelihood, and reciprocal affection grows until your every aim succeeds. Another grounds the 'highest good' in purity of food: the gods nourish you with pure food, which is a limb of steadfast knowledge, since (as the Sruti says) pure food purifies the inner being, firms the memory, and loosens all the knots that bind.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
The modern commentators draw out the verse's ethical and cosmic sense. One renders the mutual giving as pleasing one another into prosperity, with both sides attaining the highest benefit. One reads it as a refusal of one-sided extraction: each god presides over a kind of action, your share of the offering increases the god's capacity to bless the world, and in return you are granted the means for the next round of action, so the deeper teaching is that the world is an order of mutual giving in which the human being should take his place as a giver, not a hoarder. One notes that deva means 'the shining one' and that the highest good may mean either knowledge of the Self that frees from rebirth or the attainment of heaven, the fruit depending on the aspirant's motive.
Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda
A Seeker Asks
If sacrifice is a trade of offerings for rain and rewards, how is that any different from a transaction, and how can a bargain with the gods possibly lead to liberation?
The verse does describe a real exchange, you nourish the gods and they nourish you, but its center of gravity is the word 'mutually,' parasparam. What it teaches first is not a clever trade but an order of interdependence: rain, food, and the strength to act all reach you through powers you did not create, so the right human posture is to give back into the cycle rather than only draw from it. Read this way the verse is the opposite of a self-serving bargain; it dethrones the hoarder.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
What turns the cycle into a path of liberation is the motive of the doer. The commentators read 'the highest good' as having two levels: the one who acts for enjoyment gains heaven, a real but lesser fruit, while the one who offers without grasping at the reward lets the same action gradually mature into knowledge of the Self, which alone frees from birth and death. The act is identical; the inner aim decides whether it ends in a payout or in release.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Bhāskara · Swami Sivananda · Śrī Ānandagiri
For the theistic readers the exchange is never really with separate vendors at all. The gods are the body of the Lord, who is the true enjoyer of every sacrifice and the inner self of each deity, so what looks like a trade with nature is in truth meeting the indwelling Lord through every act rightly offered. Worship itself is the worshipper's growth, which is why the right offering can carry one toward release rather than merely toward goods.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīla Baladeva · Vallabhācārya
Contemplation
Carry this verse out of ritual and into daily life: the deeper sense is that the world is not a stage for one-sided extraction but an order of mutual giving. Every gift you receive, the rain, the food, the strength to act, comes to you through a web of powers you did not create. The verse asks you simply to take your place in that order as a giver and not as a hoarder. Before you reach for your share, offer something of yours into the cycle; let your work increase the capacity of others to bless the world, and trust that the means for your next round of action will come back to you in turn. Lived this way, ordinary giving becomes a form of sacrifice, and the highest good is approached not by grasping but by participating.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, tap a name in The seating.