Bhagavad Gita 3.11
देवान्भावयतानेन ते देवा भावयन्तु वः । परस्परं भावयन्तः श्रेयः परमवाप्स्यथ ॥
devān bhāvayatānena te devā bhāvayantu vaḥ | parasparaṃ bhāvayantaḥ śreyaḥ param avāpsyatha ||
Translation
With this, nourish the gods, and let the gods nourish you. Nourishing one another, you shall attain the highest good.
Reflection
What have you been sending back to the cycle you eat from?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Three
Parasparaṃ bhāvayantaḥ. Mutually nourishing. The verse is grammatically reciprocal: you nourish them, they nourish you. Bhāvayata is not worship. It is causing-to-be, sustaining. The exchange is the highest good. Shankara reads the gods here not just as named beings but as the powers that maintain rain, fire, harvest, the cycles that make ordinary life possible. The point is not theology. It is debt. Everything you eat, drink, breathe arrived because something larger turned. The verse is asking what you have been sending back.