THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 3, KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION, VERSE NUMBER 35,

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 35

The Text in Transliteration:

sreyaan svadharmo vigunah paradharmaat svanusthitaah

svadharme nidhanam sreyah paradharmo bhayavahah

Text in English:

One’s own dharma, though imperfect, is better than the dharma of another well discharged. Better death in one’s own dharma; the dharma of another is full of fear.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Man’s nature is to have recourse to what gives pleasure and to recoil from what gives pain. Arjuna’s temporary set back illustrates this position. From boyhood onwards he had been trained for the dharma of a ruler and a warrior. He delighted in being trained that way, because it was his own duty, svadharma. The impending righteous war demanded his fighting against the revered grandsire, which he did not like; he even hated it. At this juncture he preferred to be a recluse, subsisting on alms. Nothing good accrues to one by changing one’s svadharma, prompted by fear or hatred. Abandoning one’s duty and embracing that of another, enticed by ease and pleasure are equally harmful. Vacillation of the mind is born of weakness; it depraves man more and more. Steadfastness to duty on the other hand, strengthens man and aids the building of character.  Constancy is life and vacillation death. Through firm devotion to duty, man gains in excellence. Arjuna was about to lose his manliness through a change of dharma. Even if he had lived a hermit’s life as best he could, his conscience would have been clouded: and that was worse than death. He would have proved himself a coward if he had changed his dharma. Man should always evolve in the makeup best suited to him.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

A professional farmer does not lose courage and continues to cultivate even if there be a terrible drought for twelve long years. But a weaver who takes to tilling for a change of occupation gets disheartened if rain fails for one season. A true devotee does not deviate from the path of devotion for any reason whatsoever. In life and death he relies on the Lord.

A note by Swami Sidbhavananda:

In chapter two stanzas 62 and 63 and in chapter three stanza, 34, the root cause of all evils has been unmistakably pointed out. Still Arjuna raises that question again here for further elucidation:-

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

There is more happiness in doing one’s own work even without excellence than in doing another’s duty well. Each one must try to understand his psychophysical makeup and function in accordance with it. It may not be given to all of us to lay the foundations of systems of metaphysics or clothe lofty thoughts in enduring words. We have not at all the same gifts, but what is vital is not whether we endowed with five talents or only one but how faithfully we have employed the trust committed to us. We must play our part, manfully, be it great or small. Goodness denotes perfection of quality. However distasteful one’s duty may be, one must be faithful to it even unto death.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

It is indeed better for man to die discharging his own duty though destitute of merit than for him to live doing the duty of another though performed in a perfect manner. For the duty of another has its  pitfalls. The duty of a Kshatriya is to fight in a righteous battle. Arjuna must fight. This is his duty. Even if he dies in the discharge of his own duty, it is better for him. He will go to heaven. He should not do the duty of another man. This will bring him peril. He should not stop from fighting and enter the path of renunciation.

The blogger’s opinion:

Men and women take birth according to their own cumulative karmic effect and the thought at the time of breathing their last. In which we are indulged throughout our life shall form the last thought at the time of death. And even in the case of persons who die in their sleep or accident or unconscious state, the effect of their cumulative thought and actions are important. So, the reincarnation is determined by what we were and did and thought in the previous life. And there is another karma as sachintha, the cumulative but latent effect of un-worked out karma; this also has a say in determining our next birth.

Thus the family into which we are born, the kind of parents and brothers and sisters we have, apart from the relations and our friends. Our karma to be worked out in the next birth would also be dependent on such persons’ influence on our psyche.

Thus there is nothing accidental in our birth and station in the present birth. Among the four varnas or classes of persons like the Brahmin, Chathriya, Vaisya and shutra is predominantly determined in this birth by the summum bonum of the thoughts and actions of us in the previous birth.

Now svadharma or the self-ordained duty is determined by our birth, family, relations and friends and our own preponderating guna in the previous life. Thus we determine our own svadharma or self-ordained duty in the present birth. Then how can we swerve from actions and thoughts not in consonant with our present station and state of birth in the present life without incurring the necessary incidents of fear and doubts?

It is better to deal with our own duty ordained by our state of birth and station in society than trying to meddle with others’ svadharmic or self-ordained duty. For when we deal with our own svadharmic duty, there is excellence even when performed half-heartedly. And, likewise, there is fear and doubt when we surrogate another man’s svadharma and even when we show excellence in his svadharmic duty we are left to whistle in the wind and we are not sure of our vocation. For, vocation is determined by our predominating guna or tendency.

Even a shutra should have evolved from the Ape. Even a Brahmin should have been born in some previous birth as a shutra carrying out the menial acts, as we see.

For, among actions, nothing is menial and derogatory and decadent. It is our false sight and belief that make them to look so.

This was why our first Governor General, Shri Rajagopalachari fondly called as Rajaji, introduced a scheme of education that prevailed upon students to follow school education in the forenoon and go back home in the afternoon to learn the vocation of his parents. He thus had, at one stroke, had set at naught the forces that latter brought in debilitating unemployment. His laudable scheme was demeaned as KULA KALVI OR AN ATTEMPT TO PERPETUATE VARNASIRAMA OR THE FOUR CLASSES OF THE SOCIETY AS ENVISIONED BY THE LORD HIMSELF. AND RAJAJI  RESIGNED FROM HIS POST AS THE CHIEF MINISTER OF TAMIL NADU!

The predominant tendency of ours is determined by our actions, thought, desire and the last thought at the time of death in the previous birth. And this predominant tendency also determines out guna or tendency to act. And, as a result, we are made to act without fear or doubt in this birth in the state of birth and station in society.

Thus, it can be seen, our svadharma or self-ordained duty is nothing but our own creation.

This is how we are geared and wired to doing certain acts without much of an exertion while some actions are not easy for us. What comes naturally to us is our svadharma. And we should practise that art or craft or other actions carefully so that we could show greater and habitual excellence in the carrying out of such actions and vocation.

There is nothing demeaning about being a shutra or a vaisiya or a chathriya, and nothing rare and rarefied comes to be attached to a Brahmin just because of his incident of birth. If he does not show tendencies and follows vocations as according to his Brahminical status now, he would have to go down in his state and station and incidents of birth next time.

Let us follow what comes naturally to us. For that comprises our svadharma. Let’s not ape other’s dharma or duty.

What is material in the final analysis is not how best we carried out our vocation or self- ordained duty but with what attitude and with how much ease.

For, every one has on his or her hands 24 hours a day and time hangs heavily on our hands. We must be like a sparrow in being and going through life without any care even as we carry out our self-ordained duty without much of an exertion. It counts for much!