Bhagavad Gita 9.16
अहं क्रतुरहं यज्ञः स्वधाहमहमौषधम् | मन्त्रोऽहमहमेवाज्यमहमग्निरहं हुतम् ||
ahaṁ kratur ahaṁ yajñaḥ svadhāham aham auṣadham | mantro'ham aham evājyam aham agnir ahaṁ hutam ||
Translation
I am the kratu, I am the yajña, I am the offering to the fathers, I am the herb. I am the mantra, I alone am the ghee, I am the fire, and I am the oblation.
Reflection
What ritual in your day already has one source under all its parts?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Nine
The first of the long Aham series begins here. Krishna names Himself as kratu and yajna, the two main ritual forms; as svadha, the offering to the ancestors; as the herb used in the rite; as the mantra spoken over it; as the clarified butter poured into the fire; as the fire itself; as the oblation that meets the fire. The list dissolves the architecture of the ritual into its source. Every part of the ceremony, the actor, the act, the implements, the recipient, is the same Krishna under different names. The verse is not abolishing ritual. It is showing what ritual has always actually been. The sacrificer who knows this verse cannot break the rite into pieces because the pieces, named correctly, are one thing.