Making the means pure

10. But then, when can we surrender all our action to the Lord? Only when they are sattvik, purified. Then and only then, can we do so. Yajna, dana, tapas, all should be made pure. We saw in the Fourteenth Chapter the philosophy of making our actions sattvik. In this Chapter, the Gita explains its application.

11. In this plan of purification, the Gita has two aims. The service that is being rendered to the world through my external actions of yajna, dana and tapas, can itself, viewed from within, be described a spiritual exercise. The service of creation and the development of the spirit do not demand two different courses of action : service and spiritual growth are not two different things. For both, the effort made, the action performed is the same.

And even this action has at last to be surrendered to the Lord. Service to society, spiritual effort, and the attitude of surrender to the Lord, - this yoga, this composite result, must flow from the same action.

12. Two things are needed to make yajna sattvik. They are avoiding fruitless actions and also the desire for fruit. If there is expectation of fruit in yajna, it becomes rajasik : if it is fruitless, it becomes tamasik.
Spinning is yajna. But if we do not inform it with spirit, and our mind is not one-pointed, the sutra-yajna will become lifeless. Unless the mind within joins the hand working outwards, the whole action departs from the prescribed order.

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