Love is Not a Feeling, but an Action of Sacrifice

Chapter 3 passage 3 [3.9-16]:

• Arjuna, having again been encouraged to engage with the social world (karma) whilst situated in yoga within [3.3-8], may be concerned about karmic bondage (samsara=rebirth due to karmic reactions). Afterall, his social work can be a rather violent one. To this Krishna responds:
• Work for the purpose of yajna, especially work informed by yoga (karma-yoga), does not generate karmic bondage [3.9]
• What is yajna? Often translated into English as sacrifice, meaning to make holy or whole, is the recognition that humans draw from the resources of nature and therefore, must give back to nature to make the relation whole. Nature is spoken of in this passage of the Gita as the relation between human and devas, i.e. the gods who represent the personified or conscious aspects behind the apparently impersonal forces of nature spoken. Humans take from nature (the devas) minimally for their survival, thus incurring a debt that must be paid (made whole) in currency comprised of yajna [3.10-12].
• (Vedic) Culturally, there was a specific vedic ritual involved in this honoring of the gods (nature) for the resources they provide. To take without giving back is not only profoundly ungrateful, but theft, incurring negative consequence on life [3.13].
• Not only is the principle of yajna, when honored, sustain and allow the world prosperity [3.14-15], but also the imperishable reality (God) is situated in acts of yajna, i.e. one contacts God, knowingly or unknowingly, in acts of yajna [3.14-15] (as oppose to acts simply for the self and not for the greater whole).
• Therefore, that life is in vain and lived uselessly that doesn’t honor the circle of life [mentioned in 3.14-15], by acting (karma) for the purpose of yajna [3.16]

Many say it is love that makes the world go round. But what is love without the incessant action of sacrifice? Rather it’s a relation between mother and child, lover and beloved, collective and individual, government and citizen, or heaven (the devas) and earth (humans), it is the honoring of the whole that contains the two polarities, which allow for its continued healthy existence. Soon as the whole is neglected, or worst, dishonored, the dis-integration and final dissolution is ineluctable. Secular or religious, action for yajna is what allows for prosperity and progressive experience of God, who is “eternally situated in acts of yajna” [3.15].

The principle of action for yajna is also well suited for the teachings of karma-yoga which cares about the reconciliation of social prosperity and spiritual evolution. In receiving, a debt is incurred that must be paid in coins of yajna, lest we bring upon our world the curse of acute selfishness destroying all that is good and desirable.