Jnana means understanding but, it is not just an intellectual
feat. 'Eating' does not mean the placing of food on the tongue.
Eating is worth while only when the food is chewed and swallowed
and digested and assimilated in the blood stream and transformed
into muscle and bone, into strength and vigour. So too
understanding or Jnana must permeate and invigorate all the
moments of life. It must be expressed through all the organs and
sense, through all the Karmendriyas and all the Jnanendriyas. To
this high stage man must reach.
Mere accumulation of learning is not Jnana. Only Sadguna is
Jnana.
In order that one might do seva, a little Bhoga too has to be
gone through. Such Bhoga is a part of yajna. To make this
body-machine function, the fuel of Anna has to be used. Anna is
not yajna, but it makes yajna possible. Therefore, eating food is
not to be laughed at as catering to greed, as Udaraposhana. It is
part of worship.
Puja is not merely the plucking of a flower and placing it on
top of the image; the gardener who toiled to nurse the plant that
gave the flower is also a worshipper. It is only when food is
given that the body can function. Even the means for a sacrifice
is yajna.
All Karma done for the sake of three entities is sacrifice,
viz., to utilise the world for the worship of the Lord, to
establish peace and justice in society and to control and
co-ordinate the functions of the body. The first is called Yajna,
the second Dana and the third Tapas. All human acts must subserve
these three needs.