Among them, all those who know the purpose of sacrifice are freed from the chains of karma. Having tasted the nectar of the fruits of sacrifice, they attain the supreme spheres of eternity.

Know that without performing sacrifice one cannot live happily in this [material] world, and what about the next [next life]?

These various sacrifices are authorised by the Vedas [the original holy scriptures] and designed according to the various forms of action. Knowing this, you will attain liberation.

Superior to the sacrifice of material goods is the sacrifice of knowledge, for ultimately the sacrifice of action finds its finality in absolute knowledge.

Seek to know the truth by approaching a spiritual master, enquire of him with submission while serving him. The realised soul can reveal knowledge to you, for he has seen the truth.

And when you thus know the truth, you will understand that all beings are an integral part of Me, that they live in Me, and belong to Me.

Even if you are the vilest of fishermen, once you embark on the vessel of spiritual knowledge, you will cross the ocean of suffering. Like the blazing fire that converts wood to ashes, the blaze of knowledge reduces to ashes all the consequences of material actions.

There is nothing in this world as pure and sublime as absolute knowledge. The ripe fruit of all yogas, he who possesses it finds joy in himself at the right moment. The man of faith bathed in absolute knowledge, and master of his senses, soon knows the highest spiritual peace.

But the ignorant and the unbelieving, who doubt the sacred writings, cannot become God-conscious. For him who doubts, there is no happiness in this life in this world or in the next.

He whose spiritual knowledge has uprooted his doubts, and who, having renounced the fruits of his deeds, has established himself firmly in the consciousness of his real self, he remains free from the chains of action. You must, armed with the sword of knowledge, cut away the doubts that ignorance has caused to sprout in your heart.

The teaching that Krishna, God, the Supreme Person has just transmitted to us describes the eternal function of the living being that each of us is. This divine knowledge includes two forms of sacrifice; the abandonment of all material possessions and the purely spiritual deepening of the true self, i.e. the realisation that we are a spiritual soul and not the body of matter.