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Bhagavad-gītā 9.27

यत्करोषि यदश्न‍ासि यज्ज‍ुहोषि ददासि यत् । यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ॥ २७ ॥
yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi
[yat karoshi yad ashnaasi]
yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat
[yaj juhoshi dadaasi yat]
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
[yat tapasyasi kaunteya]
tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam
[tat kurushva mad-arpanam]
Word-for-word
yat — whatever karoṣi — you do yat — whatever aśnāsi — you eat yat — whatever juhoṣi — you offer dadāsi — you give away yat — whatever yat — whatever tapasyasi — austerities you perform kaunteya — O son of Kuntī tat — that kuruṣva — do mat — unto Me arpaṇam — as an offering .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi
yat
whatever
karoṣi
you do
yat
whatever
aśnāsi
you eat
yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat
yat
whatever
juhoṣi
you offer
dadāsi
you give away
yat
whatever
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
yat
whatever
tapasyasi
austerities you perform
kaunteya
O son of Kuntī
tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam
tat
that
kuruṣva
do
mat
unto Me
arpaṇam
as an offering .
Important Words
  • yat — whatever
    The relative pronoun yat is repeated five times in this verse to leave no domain of action outside the rule. Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer, whatever you give, whatever you do as austerity — yat covers them all.
  • karoṣi — you do
    Second person singular of √kṛ — the most general verb. Karoṣi covers everything from a single thought to a lifetime's career. With mat-arpaṇam, every karoṣi-act is brought inside bhakti-yoga.
  • aśnāsi — you eat
    From √aś — to eat. Food, the most repeated daily act, is pulled inside the discipline. The threefold rule from 9.26 (prayata-ātman, bhakti, the leaf-flower-fruit-water) is extended here to every meal of the devotee's life.
  • juhoṣi — you offer (in fire)
    From √hu — to offer in fire. Ritual oblation. Even the priest's professional duty becomes mat-arpaṇam — the formal yajña is also brought inside personal offering.
  • tapasyasi — you perform austerity
    From √tap. Even austerity — which classically generates personal puṇya — is brought under mat-arpaṇam. The most reliable source of self-aggrandizement (tapas) is here pre-empted: the merit is offered before it is earned.
  • arpaṇam — as an offering
    Arpaṇa — from √ṛ (causative) — to dedicate, to make over. Paired with mat (to Me) in this verse: mat-arpaṇam. The hinge word: without arpaṇa the five yats are ordinary action; with it, they become bhakti-yoga.
Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform – do that, O son of Kuntī, as an offering to Me.
Classical Sanskrit analysis शास्त्रीय विश्लेषण
How Sanskrit scholars read this verse — split, rearranged, grammar-tagged. For the plain English distilled meaning, jump to Plain meaning below.
Auto-generated study layers — original analysis of the public-domain śloka. Review against a published edition for academic work.
Plain meaning (तात्पर्य · Tātparya)
If even a leaf with bhakti reaches Him (9.26), then so can the whole content of a day. Five verbs — doing, eating, offering, giving, austerity — sweep the active life into one practice: mad-arpaṇam. Bhakti is not added to life; it reframes it.
Further notes (विवरण · Vivaraṇa)
The verse universalises 9.26 from one offering to all activity. Cf. BG 12.10 (mat-karma-paramo) and 3.30 (mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi). 'Kuruṣva' is direct, second person — Arjuna himself, and any practitioner, is the addressee. The fivefold list covers the four āśrama activities plus the everyday: nothing remains 'secular.'
Prose order (अन्वय · Anvaya)
हे कौन्तेय! यत् करोषि, यत् अश्नासि, यत् जुहोषि, यत् ददासि, यत् तपस्यसि, तत् (सर्वं) मद्-अर्पणं कुरुष्व ।
he kaunteya! yat karoṣi, yat aśnāsi, yat juhoṣi, yat dadāsi, yat tapasyasi, tat (sarvaṃ) mad-arpaṇaṃ kuruṣva |
Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in fire, whatever you give, whatever austerity you perform, O son of Kuntī, do that as an offering to Me.
Word split (पदच्छेद · Padaccheda)
यत् करोषि यत् अश्नासि यत् जुहोषि ददासि यत् । यत् तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत् कुरुष्व मद्-अर्पणम् ॥
yat karoṣi yat aśnāsi yat juhoṣi dadāsi yat | yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam ||
Grammar (व्याकरण · Vyākaraṇa)
SanskritIASTGrammarMeaning
यत् yat rel. pron. (pronoun) acc.sg. (accusative singular)n. (repeated) whatever
करोषि karoṣi √कृ pres. (present) 2sg.par. (parasmaipada / active voice) you do
अश्नासि aśnāsi √अश् pres. (present) 2sg.par. (parasmaipada / active voice) you eat
जुहोषि juhoṣi √हु pres. (present) 2sg.par. (parasmaipada / active voice) you offer in fire
ददासि dadāsi √दा pres. (present) 2sg.par. (parasmaipada / active voice) you give
तपस्यसि tapasyasi तपस् denom. pres. (present) 2sg.par. (parasmaipada / active voice) you perform austerity
कौन्तेय kaunteya कौन्तेय (m.) voc.sg. (vocative singular) O son of Kuntī
तत् tat dem. (demonstrative) pron. (pronoun) acc.sg. (accusative singular)n. that
कुरुष्व kuruṣva √कृ imv. 2sg.ātm. (ātmanepada / middle voice) do, make
मद्-अर्पणम् mad-arpaṇam मद् + अर्पण (n.) acc.sg. (accusative singular), tatpuruṣa cpd. (compound) an offering to Me
Purport

Thus, it is the duty of everyone to mold his life in such a way that he will not forget Kṛṣṇa in any circumstance. Everyone has to work for maintenance of his body and soul together, and Kṛṣṇa recommends herein that one should work for Him. Everyone has to eat something to live; therefore he should accept the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Kṛṣṇa. Any civilized man has to perform some religious ritualistic ceremonies; therefore Kṛṣṇa recommends, “Do it for Me,” and this is called arcana. Everyone has a tendency to give something in charity; Kṛṣṇa says, “Give it to Me,” and this means that all surplus money accumulated should be utilized in furthering the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Nowadays people are very much inclined to the meditational process, which is not practical in this age, but if anyone practices meditating on Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra round his beads, he is surely the greatest meditator and the greatest yogī, as substantiated by the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
27. Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you sacrifice, whatever you give, whatever austerity you perform, offer it to Me, O son of Kuntī.
Commentary

“Among all the types of bhakti You have mentioned starting with mention of the bhakti of the sufferer, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive and jñānī, which bhakti should I perform?” O Arjuna, because you cannot reject karma, jñāna and other processes in your present state, and are not qualified for the supreme bhakti, kevalā bhakti, and because you should not degrade yourself to perform the inferior sakāma-bhakti, you should perform bhakti, with a slight mixture of karma and jñāna (karma-jñāna-miśra pradhānī bhūtā bhakti), but which is niṣkāma. [Note: This is predominately bhakti with some mixture of other elements. It is similar to karma-yoga because activities are performed, but it superior to karma-yoga and niṣkāma-karma-yoga because all activities, even beyond prescribed duties, are offered to the Lord without desire. It is similar to jñāna-miśra-bhakti because the person has knowledge of ātmā and Paramātmā. But it is superior to jñāna- miśra-bhakti because it has abundant appreciation of the personal features of the Lord. But because the consciousness is not always fixed on the Lord, the activities are offered after performance rather than before. Thus it cannot be classed as ananyā bhakti.] Kṛṣṇa explains this in two verses. Whatever you do, whether following rules of the Veda or whether performing worldly action, whatever you eat or drink in ordinary life, whatever austerities you perform, do it in such a way that it becomes an offering to Me. One should call this neither niṣkāma-karma-yoga nor bhakti-yoga. The practitioners of karma-yoga offer actions prescribed in the scriptures to the Lord, but not all of the actions they do in ordinary life. This view is accepted by everyone. The devotees, however, offer to the Lord all the actions of their mind, prāṇas and senses. The method of bhakti is stated: kāyena vācā manasendriyair vā buddhyātmanā vānusṛta-svabhāvāt karoti yad yat sakalaṁ parasmai nārāyaṇāyeti samarpayet tam In accordance with the particular nature one has acquired in conditioned life, whatever one does with body, words, mind, senses, intelligence or purified consciousness one should offer to the Supreme, thinking, “This is for the pleasure of Lord Nārāyaṇa.” SB 11.2.36 “But when you mention that I should offer in sacrifice, that sacrifice is derived from arcana, which is an aṅga of bhakti, aiming at the pleasure of Viṣṇu. And when you mention austerities, it means vows such as Ekādaśī fast. This is all ananyā bhakti. How can You say that it is not?” True, but ananyā bhakti does not mean that you perform an action and then offer it to the Lord. Rather, in ananyā bhakti the action is done after first offering it to the Lord. This is mentioned by Prahlāda when he says iti puṁsārpitā viṣṇau bhaktiś cen nava-lakṣaṇā kriyeta bhagavaty: this bhakti of nine types after being offered to the Lord should then be performed for the Lord. (SB 7.5.24) Śrīdhara Svāmī has explained this Bhāgavatam verse. “In ananyā bhakti, actions, first being offered to the Lord, should be performed, rather than performing the acts and then offering them later.” Thus, the present verse is not included in kevalā bhakti, since the acts are performed and then offered. [Note: Nor is it considered niṣkāma-karma-yoga because all acts are offered, not just prescribed duties.]

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa Gauḍīya
Translation
27. Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you sacrifice, whatever you give, whatever austerity you perform, offer it to Me, O son of Kuntī.
Commentary

I have explained to you about the devotion of pure devotees (nirapekṣa) in such verses as satatam kīrtayanto mām. But as a pariniṣṭita devotee, you, though performing bhakti processes like kīrtana, should performing bhakti to Me by offering all actions to Me, in order to teach the people. With this intention the Lord speaks this verse. [Note: The nirapekṣa devotee performs only the activities of bhakti. The pariniṣṭha performs the activities of bhakti and as well prescribed duties, but imbued with devotion, and offered to the Lord. The verses describing pure bhakti are performed by both types of devotees.] Whatever material activities you do to support your daily existence, whatever food you eat to maintain your body, whatever Vedic sacrifices you perform, whatever gold, food or other items you give to qualified persons in charity, and whatever annual austerities such as cāndrāyaṇa vrata that you perform to counteract unintentional sins, do all of that so that it becomes an offering to Me. Because of instructing people on My behalf by doing this, you will gain My mercy in plenty. One should not think that this bhakti which offers all actions is same as the bhakti of the saniṣtha devotees. What are offered in the saniṣṭha’s bhakti are only the actions defined in the Vedas. It is the pariniṣṭhita bhaktas who is described in this verse, because, they offer all of actions to the Lord, not just the prescribed actions, understood by the Lord’s instruction in this verse, “Whatever you do, offer it to Me.” [Note: In the case of the sanistha and pariniṣṭhita devotees the prescribed duties are performed and then offered to the Lord, but the pariniṣṭhita devotee offers all acts, not just he prescribed duties. And more important, he also dedicates most of his time to activities of pure bhakti such as chanting.] Wanting to save the Lord the endeavor of performing actions to instruct the people, the pariniṣṭhita devotees perform all actions as an offering (to instruct the people only, and not with personal motivation), and in doing to they please the Lord.

Bhūrijana Dāsa Gauḍīya
Commentary

And its result is,

Study Notes — Gauranga Priya Dāsa
Gauranga Priya Dāsa Study
Bhakti-śāstrī Notes, ISKCON Chowpatty (2009)
Theme

Niṣkāma-karmīs are attached to the specific work they perform. To them Kṛṣṇa therefore says that

whatever you are already doing, “do that as an offering to Me.” First perform the activity and then

surrender its fruit to Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti is different. In bhakti, we first surrender to the order of guru and Kṛṣṇa and then act. We

make no distinction between the activity and its fruit. Everything is offered in surrender to Kṛṣṇa’s

lotus feet.

Bhagavad Gita Notes

Śrīla Prabhupāda confirmed that this verse refers to karma-yoga, technically different from bhakti-

yoga, in a lecture on the prayers of Queen Kunti, given in Mayapura in 1974:

Kṛṣṇa is meant for the paramahaāsa and muni, very, very exalted persons. Yoga means “contact” or

“having connection.” Bhakti-yoga means directly connecting with Kṛṣṇa, or God. Other yogas are not directly

connected. When there is karma-yoga, it is adulterated. It is not pure. Karma-yoga means yat karoṣi yad

aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat. In the beginning one cannot take to pure bhakti-yoga. Therefore karma-yoga is

recommended. People are interested in different types of work. So therefore Kṛṣṇa says, yat karoṣi: “Never

mind, whatever you are doing.” So how does it become karma-yoga? Now, kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam: “You

give it to Me.” Kṛṣṇa says, “All right, go on. You are attached to business. You go on doing that. But the

money earned out of your business, you give to Me.” This is karma-yoga. “It doesn’t matter, whatever you

are doing, but the ultimate result, you give to Me.”

Classical Ācāryas
Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Classical
Translation
9.27 O son of Kunti, yat-karosi, whatever you do, what comes spontaneously; [Actions such as walking etc. that are spontaneous,not injunctions of the scriptures.] yad-asnasi, whatever you eat; and yat-juhosi, whatever you offer as a sacrifice, whatever sacrifices you perform-be it prescribed by the Vedas or by the Smrtis; yatadadasi, whatever you give-gold, food, clarified butter, etc. to Brahmanas and others; and yat-tapasyasi, whatever austerties you undertake; (all) tat, that; kurusva madarpanam, you offer to Me. 'Hear what happens to you when you act thus.'
Śrī Rāmānujācārya Classical
Translation
9.27 Whatsoever worldly work you do for the sustenance of the body, whatsoever you set aside for the sustenance of the body, whatsoever Vedic acts, obligatory and occasional, like offerings, charity and austerity you practise - do all that as an offering to Me. 'Arpana' is offering. Do all acts, secular and Vedic, as if the doer, the enjoyer and the worshipped were all offerings to Me. The import is this: The divinities etc., who are the objects of sacrificial worship, charities etc., and you, the agent and experiencer - all belong to Me and have their essence, existence and actions dependent on Me. Thus only to Me, the supreme Principal (Sesi) and supreme agent, offer everything - yourself as the agent, experiencer and worshipper, all the host of divinities who are the object of worship and the sum of actions constituting the worship. Actuated by overwhelming love, contemplate yourself and other factors such as the objects of worship, as dependent on Me as My Sesas, and hence as of a nature that finds delight only in subservience to Me.
Śrī Abhinavagupta Classical
Translation
9.27 See Comment under 9.28
Swami Sivananda Classical
Translation
9.27 Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest in sacrifice, whatever thou givest, whatever thou practisest as austerity, O Arjuna, do it as an offering unto Me.
Commentary

9.27 यत् whatever? करोषि thou doest? यत् whatever? अश्नासि thou eatest? यत् whatever? जुहोषि thou offerest in sacrifice? ददासि thou givest? यत् whatever? यत् whatever? तपस्यसि thou practisest as austerity? कौन्तेय O Kaunteya? तत् that? कुरुष्व do? मदर्पणम् offering unto Me.Commentary Consecrate all acts to the Lord. Then you will be freed from the bondage of Karma. You will have freedom in action. He who tries to live in the spirit of this verse will be able to do selfsurrender unto the Lord. Gradually he ascends the spiritual path step by step. His greedy nature is slowly dissolved now. He always gives. He is not eager to take. His whole life with all its actions? thoughts and feelings? is dedicated to the service of the Lord eventually. He lives for the Lord only. He works for the Lord only. There is not a bit of egoism now. His whole nature is transformed into divinity. When actions are dedicated to the Lord? there is no rirth for you. This is the simplest method of Yoga. Do not waste your time any longer. Take it up from today.All actions? all results and all rewards will go to the Lord. There is no separte living for the individual. Just as the river joins the sea abandoning its own name and form so also the individual soul joins the Supreme Soul giving up his own name and form? his own egoistic desires and egoism. The individual will has become one with the cosmic will.Whatever thou doest of thy own sweet will? whatever thou offerest in sacrifice as enjoined in the scriptures? whatever thou givest -- such things as gold? rice? ghee? clothes? etc.? to the Brahmins and others -- whatever austerity such as the ChandrayanaVrata (to destroy sin)? control of the senses? etc.? thou doest? do thou all these as an offering unto Me. (Cf.V.32XII.6and8)Now listen to what you will gain by doing thus.

Swami Gambhīrānanda Classical
Translation
9.27 O son of Kunti, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as a sacrifice, whatever you give and whatever austerities you undertake, (all) that you offer to Me.
Shri Purohit Swami Classical
Translation
9.27 Whatever thou doest, whatever thou dost eat, whatever thou dost sacrifice and give, whatever austerities thou practisest, do all as an offering to Me.
Related values & verses
Related values
Tyaga (Renunciation / Letting Go)Karuna (Kindness / Compassion)Ahimsa (Non-violence / Compassion)Tapas (Austerity / Discipline)Guru Bhakti (Reverence for Teacher)Atma Nigraha (Self-control)Maitri (Friendship / Goodwill)Daksya (Resourcefulness / Skill)
Related verses
BG 9.26 BG 12.10 BG 3.30 SB 11.2.36 SB 11.3.27 SB 7.5.23 CC Madhya 22.93 CC Madhya 8.91 CC Ādi 13.14 BRS 1.2.255 BRS 1.2.256
Stories
arjuna_fish_eye_middledaksya_epic_primarydaksya_epic_seniornishkama_karma_epic_collegeseva_epic_collegevairagya_epic_collegesb_nishkama_karma_primary
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer, whatever you give, whatever austerities you perform — do it as an offering to Me.
Practical Applications
  • Apply offering-consciousness to every category of action.
  • Audit a day: what was offered, what was held back?
  • Increase the offering-side over time.
Reflection Questions
  • What category am I most withholding from offering?
  • How would offering it change the experience?
Analogy

A goldsmith taught his apprentice to stamp every piece he made with the master's seal — even his own private experiments and personal trinkets. After years the apprentice forgot how to make anything without the stamp; the seal had become the unconscious last step of every act. Mat-arpaṇam is this stamp. Whatever you do — yat karoṣi yat aśnāsi yat juhoṣi dadāsi yat — close the act with Kṛṣṇa's seal, and the act becomes His.

Stories
Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī's offering

Raghunātha dāsa, the wealthiest single bhakta of Caitanya Mahāprabhu's generation, son of a zamīndāra, renounced everything to live at Govardhana. Each day his portion was a few discarded rice grains gathered from rejected food piles, soaked in water, and offered first to Kṛṣṇa before he ate.

When Sanātana Gosvāmī scolded him for living so harshly, Raghunātha quietly answered that his meager rice, offered with mat-arpaṇam, was the wealthiest table in Vraja. The verse 9.27 is his rule: not yat karoṣi as an exception, but every yat under the rule — every grain stamped before it was eaten.

Rūpa Gosvāmī declining the king's gifts

Rūpa Gosvāmī, in his Vṛndāvana years, lived under a different tree each night. King Mānasiṁha of Amber offered him land, money, anything he chose. Rūpa accepted nothing for himself but accepted lavishly for the construction of Govindajī temple — every coin marked mat-arpaṇam before it was placed in the building work.

This is the verse's nuance: tat kuruṣva mat-arpaṇam does not mean abstain from action. It means perform action with the stamp. Rūpa did not reject the kingdom's wealth; he routed it through the offering. The same money that would have bound a worldly man became liberating in his hands because of the seal.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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