View source for BG 02.31 sva-dharmam api caveksya... cited

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{{terms|"dharmyad dhi yuddhac chreyo 'nyat"|"ksatriyasya na vidyate"|"na vikampitum arhasi"|"sva-dharmam api caveksya"}}
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[[Category:Bhagavad-gita Ch.01-06 - Cited Verses]]
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is" class="section" sec_index="0" parent="compilation" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is"><h2>Bhagavad-gita As It Is</h2>
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<div id="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is" text="BG Chapters 1 - 6"><h3>BG Chapters 1 - 6</h3>
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<div id="BG231_0" class="quote" parent="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" book="BG" index="70" link="BG 2.31" link_text="BG 2.31">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:BG 2.31 (1972)|BG 2.31, Translation and Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">Considering your specific duty as a kṣatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles; and so there is no need for hesitation.</p>
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<div class="purport text"><p>Out of the four orders of social administration, the second order, for the matter of good administration, is called kṣatriya. Kṣat means hurt. One who gives protection from harm is called kṣatriya (trāyate—to give protection). The kṣatriyas are trained for killing in the forest. A kṣatriya would go into the forest and challenge a tiger face to face and fight with the tiger with his sword. When the tiger was killed, it would be offered the royal order of cremation. This system has been followed even up to the present day by the kṣatriya kings of Jaipur state. The kṣatriyas are specially trained for challenging and killing because religious violence is sometimes a necessary factor. Therefore, kṣatriyas are never meant for accepting directly the order of sannyāsa, or renunciation. Nonviolence in politics may be a diplomacy, but it is never a factor or principle. In the religious law books it is stated:</p>
:āhaveṣu mitho 'nyonyaṁ
:jighāṁsanto mahī-kṣitaḥ
:yuddhamānāḥ paraṁ śaktyā
:svargaṁ yānty aparāṅ-mukhāḥ
:yajñeṣu paśavo brahman
:hanyante satataṁ dvijaiḥ
:saṁskṛtāḥ kila mantraiś ca
:te 'pi svargam avāpnuvan
<p>"In the battlefield, a king or kṣatriya, while fighting another king envious of him, is eligible for achieving the heavenly planets after death, as the brāhmaṇas also attain the heavenly planets by sacrificing animals in the sacrificial fire." Therefore, killing on the battlefield on religious principles and killing animals in the sacrificial fire are not at all considered to be acts of violence, because everyone is benefited by the religious principles involved. The animal sacrificed gets a human life immediately without undergoing the gradual evolutionary process from one form to another, and the kṣatriyas killed on the battlefield also attain the heavenly planets, as do the brāhmaṇas who attain them by offering sacrifice.</p>
<p>There are two kinds of sva-dharmas, specific duties. As long as one is not liberated, one has to perform the duties of his particular body in accordance with religious principles in order to achieve liberation. When one is liberated, one's sva-dharma—specific duty—becomes spiritual and is not in the material bodily concept. In the bodily conception of life there are specific duties for the brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas respectively, and these duties are unavoidable. Such sva-dharma is ordained by the Lord, and this will be clarified in the Fourth Chapter. On the bodily plane sva-dharma is called varṇāśrama-dharma, or man's steppingstone for spiritual understanding. Human civilization begins from the stage of varṇāśrama-dharma, or specific duties in terms of the specific modes of nature of the body obtained. Discharging one's specific duty in any field of action in accordance with the orders of higher authorities serves to elevate one to a higher status of life.</p>
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG22738LosAngelesDecember111968_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="94" link="Lecture on BG 2.27-38 -- Los Angeles, December 11, 1968" link_text="Lecture on BG 2.27-38 -- Los Angeles, December 11, 1968">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 2.27-38 -- Los Angeles, December 11, 1968|Lecture on BG 2.27-38 -- Los Angeles, December 11, 1968]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Devotee: 31: "Considering your specific duty as a kṣatriya you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles, and so there is no need for hesitation ([[Vanisource:BG 2.31 (1972)|BG 2.31]])."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So here fighting is a matter of duty. That is the kṣatriya spirit. Fighting is not killing. Because people have no idea what is the soul, therefore they think that stopping war will help us in peaceful condition of the society. There are so many troubles so long this body is there. War is one of the items. Even war is stopped, there is no question that people will live forever. No. That is not the law of nature. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam ([[Vanisource:BG 8.15 (1972)|BG 8.15]]). This life, the problem is how to stop our contact with this material body That is the problem. Not that these general people, they are thinking, "If war, there is no war, then we shall be very happy." How you'll stop your war with māyā? Māyā has declared war with you, or you have declared war with māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā ([[Vanisource:BG 7.14 (1972)|BG 7.14]]). The māyā, the material nature is enforcing, "Why you are closing this door?" "Oh, because it is very cold outside." Who is forcing? Immediately there will be cold, immediately there will be fog, immediately there will be excessive heat, immediately there may be earthquake. How you can stop it? So they simply think... Just like innocent child, they are concerned with the immediate problem. But sane man is concerned with the ultimate problem. So our ultimate problem is not this war. The ultimate problem is repetition of birth and death. That is ultimate problem, how to stop this. That is the problem. So Kṛṣṇa says that "This is useless lamentation, that you do not wish to fight. It is the concluded fact that even your grandfather or relatives die, they will continue as soul. You have to execute your duty. You cannot deviate from your duty." Go on.</p>
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<div id="LectureonBG231LondonSeptember11973_1" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="97" link="Lecture on BG 2.31 -- London, September 1, 1973" link_text="Lecture on BG 2.31 -- London, September 1, 1973">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 2.31 -- London, September 1, 1973|Lecture on BG 2.31 -- London, September 1, 1973]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Pradyumna: "Considering your specific duty as a kṣatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles; and so there is no need for hesitation."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: </p>
:sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya
:na vikampitum arhasi
:dharmyāddhi yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat
:kṣatriyasya na vidyate
:([[Vanisource:BG 2.31 (1972)|BG 2.31]])
<p>Sva-dharmam. Sva means "own." And dharmam means "occupation." Dharma means occupation and... (to Pradyumna:) You finished?</p>
<p>Pradyumna: Yes.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Sva means "own." Sva-dharmam: "one's own occupation." So according to Vedic civilization, everyone has his own sva-dharma. This has been misinterpreted by the rascals. Sva-dharma means anyone can discover his own religious principle. Yato mata tato patha. Whatever you think is religious principle, that's all right. This is going on. But that is not the meaning. Sva-dharma means "own occupation." Actually dharma means which you cannot give up. Dhṛ-dhātu. You have to capture it; to keep your existence you must capture it.</p>
<p>So because we have got body and soul, two different things, we are combination, body and soul. That is already explained very nicely in so many ways. So actually sva-dharma means the occupation of the soul. Because in the material condition we do not understand what I am—whether I am this body or I am soul. Mostly people they do not know that one is soul, not this body. Body is the dress or outward covering, external covering. Subtle covering and gross covering. But so long one is in the bodily concept of life, so one has got different occupational duty according to the conception of the body.</p>
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