Bhagavad Gita · Jnana Karma Sannyasa YogaChapter 4, Shloka 30 (4.30)
Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्
अपरे नियताहाराः प्राणान् प्राणेषु जुह्वति
सर्वेऽप्येते यज्ञविदो यज्ञक्षपितकल्मषाः
॥ 4.30 ॥
apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati
sarve'pyete yajñavido yajñakṣapitakalmaṣāḥ
Translation
"Others, of regulated (restrained) diet, offer the vital breaths into the vital breaths. All these are knowers of yajña, and through yajña their sins have been destroyed."
Interpretation
Regulated diet — the foundation of practice. Along with pranayama and the rest comes niyatāhāra — restrained, measured eating.
Shankaracharya: niyataḥ parimitaḥ āhāraḥ — measured food; prāṇān vāyu-bhedān prāṇeṣu eva juhvati — yasya yasya vāyoḥ jayaḥ kriyate itarān vāyu-bhedān tasmin tasmin juhvati, te tatra praviṣṭā iva bhavanti — whichever vital air is mastered, the other kinds of vital air are offered into it, and they enter into it, as it were. Yajñaiḥ yathoktaiḥ kṣapitaḥ nāśitaḥ kalmaṣo yeṣām (whose impurity has been destroyed by the yajñas described).
Acharya Ramanuja (4.29–4.30 together): niyatāhārāḥ applies to all three forms of pranayama. And the conclusion: these people, engaged according to their inclination in the various forms of karma-yoga from the yajña of material things to pranayama, are yajña-vidaḥ — knowers of, and steadfast in, the great yajñas and the other daily and occasional duties spoken of in saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā (3.10) — and tata eva kṣapita-kalmaṣāḥ — by that very means are freed from sin.
AI-assisted draft translation — under review.