Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 4: Knowledge and the Renouncing of Action

Bhagavad Gita 4.30

apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇānprāṇeṣu juhvati | sarve'pyete yajñavido yajñakṣapitakalmaṣāḥ ||

Others, regulating their food, offer their life-breaths into the life-breaths. All of these know what sacrifice is, and sacrifice has destroyed their impurities.

Modern context

The list ends with restraint in eating, and then with a generous verdict: all of these people understand sacrifice, and all are made clean by it. Regulated eating is the humblest discipline on the list and often the hardest, because it has to be practised several times a day. The closing words are a caution against spiritual snobbery. Whoever is sincerely giving something up for the sake of something higher is on the path, whatever form the practice takes.