Bhagwad Gita - Post 213

 Verse 24

Therefore, with the utterance of “Om” are the acts of gift, sacrifice and austerity as enjoined in the scriptures always begun by the students of Brahman.

Whenever we commence any holy act, we say OM. We never see people commencing a worship without chanting OM first. Whether it is a prayer, a meditational session, a worship or a svadhyaya, all this commences with an inward recitation of OM.

The term OM is uttered while acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity are undertaken by the followers of higher life. 

To cherish in our minds the divine awareness and the absolute supremacy of the Infinite, as expressed in OM, is to add purpose and meaning to all our acts of sacrifice, charity and austerity. 

To invoke in our minds the divine concept of the Absolute is to free our personality from its limited fields of ego-centric attachments. When a mind is thus liberated from its limitations, it becomes more efficient in all austerities, more selfless in all Yajnas, and more liberal in all charities.

  

Verse 25

Uttering Tat, without aiming at the fruits, are the acts of sacrifice and austerity and the various acts of gift performed by the seekers of liberation.

Similarly, yajna, dana and tapas are associated with the other letter, Tat, in the same way as OM is associated with yajna, dana and tapas, and with all religious performances.

With the utterance of the "Tat" alone, the acts of sacrifice, penance and gift are undertaken by the seekers of freedom, without expectation of any reward. 'Tat' indicates, as we have already explained, the "Universal Truth" and it declares "the oneness of all living creatures."

Thus, to work in the field of yajna or tapas or dana with a mind that is tuned up to Tat, "the universal oneness of the Spiritual Truth", is to work with no ego, and consequently, redeem ourselves from the thraldom of the flesh, from all the limitations of Matter.

Love.