Bhagavad Gita 8.28
वेदेषु यज्ञेषु तपःसु चैव दानेषु यत्पुण्यफलं प्रदिष्टम् | अत्येति तत्सर्वमिदं विदित्वा योगी परं स्थानमुपैति चाद्यम् ||
vedeṣu yajñeṣu tapaḥsu caiva dāneṣu yat puṇya-phalaṁ pradiṣṭam | atyeti tat sarvam idaṁ viditvā yogī paraṁ sthānam upaiti cādyam ||
Translation
Whatever fruit of merit is declared in the Vedas, in sacrifices, in austerities, and in gifts, the yogi who knows all this goes beyond all that, and reaches the supreme primal abode.
Reflection
Which measured reward have you been chasing that this teaching quietly sets in its place?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eight
The closing summary. The yogi who has understood all of what the chapter has laid out goes beyond every reward declared in the scriptures, in sacrifices, austerities, and gifts. He reaches the supreme primal abode. The verse is generous. It does not dismiss the other practices. It places them in scale. The merit they yield is real, and finite. The yoga of the kind Krishna has been describing yields something they cannot. The reach is past every measured return. The verse closes the chapter by handing the listener the same picture once more. The path that ends in Him is the one that ends. Every other path keeps going around.