इष्टान्भोगान्हि वो देवा दास्यन्ते यज्ञभाविताः।
तैर्दत्तानप्रदायैभ्यो यो भुङ्क्ते स्तेन एव सः।।3.12।।
‘Being nourished by sacrifices, the gods will indeed give you the coveted enjoyments. He is certainly a thief who enjoys what has been given by them without offering it to them.’
Osho’s Commentary
A fundamental law of life is being revealed: whatever you give, you receive. Whatever you hold back, you lose. The one who asks receives nothing from the divine. The one who gives receives everything, unasked. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all else shall be added unto you.” We seek everything else, and we lose even the kingdom of God. Krishna is saying the same thing in a different way. He says, when you live a life of Yajna, of offering, the divine forces bestow all you could ever desire. But then comes the warning. He who receives these gifts and does not offer them back is a stena, a thief. Life is a circulation, a flow. The divine gives to you; you must give back to life. You receive love; you must share love. You receive joy; you must radiate joy. The one who hoards is a miser. He creates a blockage in the cosmic flow. He becomes a stagnant pool, and soon, all that is beautiful within him begins to rot. A thief is one who takes without giving. When you receive a gift from existence—be it wealth, knowledge, or love—and you do not share it, you are stealing. You are breaking the cosmic law. The river must flow back to the ocean. The rain that falls must rise again to the clouds. In this constant giving and receiving is the health, the wholeness, of existence. The one who only takes becomes a disease, a cancer cell in the body of the cosmos.