Krishna speaks4.28

द्रव्ययज्ञास्तपोयज्ञा योगयज्ञास्तथापरे।स्वाध्यायज्ञानयज्ञाश्च यतयः संशितव्रताः॥

dravya-yajñās tapo-yajñā yoga-yajñās tathāpareswādhyāya-jñāna-yajñāś ca yatayaḥ sanśita-vratāḥ

Word by word
dravya-yajñāḥoffering one’s own wealth as sacrificetapaḥ-yajñāḥoffering severe austerities as sacrificeyoga-yajñāḥperformance of eight-fold path of yogic practices as sacrificetathāthusapareothersswādhyāyacultivating knowledge by studying the scripturesjñāna-yajñāḥthose offer cultivation of transcendental knowledge as sacrificecaalsoyatayaḥthese asceticssanśita-vratāḥobserving strict vows

The verse says

Some offer what they own. Some offer hard practice. Some offer the disciplines. Some offer study and knowing — people who have taken firm vows and hold to them.

In plain words

Four more, and they are recognisably ordinary.

Wealth. Austerity. The practices. Study.

Saṁśita-vratāḥ — of sharpened vows. People who have decided something and hold to it.

Where you've felt this · in study

Four people in the same building. One gives money away quietly. One gets up at five. One does the practice every day. One is still working through the texts after thirty years.

Going deeper

Svādhyāya — self-study, or study of what has been handed down. The word carries both senses and the ambiguity is old.

What makes this verse useful is how unexotic the list is. Giving money. Doing without. Keeping a practice. Reading carefully. These are available to almost anyone, and Krishna puts them in the same category as the breath disciplines of the verse before.

Saṁśita-vratāḥ — those whose vows are sharpened, honed. The metaphor is of an edge, and it suggests something maintained rather than merely declared.

The catalogue's cumulative effect is what matters more than any item on it. By the end of it, yajña covers wealth, body, breath, senses, attention and study, performed by householders, ascetics and everyone between.

Which is how the Gita takes a word that meant a fire ritual performed by specialists and makes it a description of any life lived with something given rather than held.