यज्ञे तपसि दाने च स्थितिः सदिति चोच्यते।कर्म चैव तदर्थीयं सदित्येवाभिधीयते॥
yajñe tapasi dāne ca sthitiḥ sad iti cocyatekarma caiva tad-arthīyaṃ sad ity evābhidhīyate
Word by word
The verse says
Standing firm in offering, in discipline and in giving is also called Sat. And any action done for the sake of that is called Sat as well.
In plain words
The word widens, and then it widens again.
First: staying steady in the three practices is real. Not performing them brilliantly. Staying.
Then the last clause takes in everything else - any action done for the sake of that. Which quietly includes the parts of your day with nothing religious about them at all.
Where you've felt this · at work
Somebody has to order the supplies, and in your office it is a woman nobody thinks about. She has never once run out of anything in six years. There is no version of this job that gets noticed, because the only evidence of it being done well is that nothing has happened. Everything anybody else does there rests on it.
Going deeper
Staying is what gets called real here, rather than intensity, and that is worth more than it first appears.
The word in the verse is for standing firm, being established. Not excelling. The claim is that continuing in these practices is itself reality, which is a direct answer to anybody who suspects their own ordinary, unimpressive persistence does not count for much.
Then the last clause opens the whole thing out. Any action done for the sake of that is also real. No list is given, because none is needed. Ordering the supplies qualifies. So does the washing-up, if that is what it is for.
Which means the division you may have been making all through this chapter - practices on one side, the rest of your life on the other - has just gone. There is no second category. There is only what the thing is for.