आहारस्त्वपि सर्वस्य त्रिविधो भवति प्रियः ।यज्ञस्तपस्तथा दानं तेषां भेदमिमं शृणु॥
āhāras tv api sarvasya tri-vidho bhavati priyaḥyajñas tapas tathā dānaṃ teṣāṃ bhedam imaṃ śṛṇu
Word by word
The verse says
Even food comes in three kinds, and people love the kind that matches them. So do offering, discipline and giving. Hear how they differ.
In plain words
The word that matters here is 'even'.
Even food. Krishna is about to spend three verses on what people eat, inside a book about the self and God, and he knows it looks like a change of subject.
It is not. The claim is that the three kinds run all the way down. If they shape what you trust, they also shape your lunch.
Where you've felt this · with money
Your friend opens his cupboard to find you something to eat and you can read his whole month off the shelves. Two kinds of biscuit, a packet of something he bought for a diet in March, no fruit, and a tin of good tea he keeps for other people. He has told you nothing about how his year is going. The shelves have told you most of it.
Going deeper
Food being discussed in a book about the self is not a change of subject, and the word even is there to tell you so.
The argument is that the three strands run through everything a person touches. If clarity, drive and dullness shape what somebody trusts, they also shape what he reaches for when he is hungry at eleven at night.
This is one of the most practical ideas in the Gita, and it is easy to skip because it sounds domestic. The inner life is not kept in a separate compartment from the daily one. There is no sealed-off spiritual department that can be worked on while everything else stays as it is.
Which cuts both ways, and the second way is the encouraging one. If small things express the state, small things also change it. You do not have to begin with your soul. You can begin with dinner.