In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna, the divine avatar of Vishnu, tells Arjuna:
śreyān svadharmo viguṇaḥ paradharmāt svanuṣṭhitāt
svadharme nidhanaṃ śreyaḥ paradharmo bhayāvahaḥ (BG 3.35)One’s own duty (swadharma), though it may be worthless, is better than someone else’s duty executed perfectly. Destruction in one’s own duty is good — someone else’s duty, on the other hand, is dangerous.
But this verse feels hollow — the question remains, how can you find your duty? You are not born knowing what it is that you must do in life. Is your duty waiting to be found? If so, how do you start the search, and how will you know when it has ended? Or is your duty within you, and do you just have to listen to it more often?
We, as students, ask this question constantly. What should I major in? Should I study or sleep early? Get a corporate job or work for a non-profit? Should I believe in God or not? Should I buy something with my money, or should I donate it to charity? Most importantly — what meaning does life have?
These are just a sampling of the questions — material and spiritual, external and internal — to which we seek answers. All of these things reduce to the question — what should I do? That is what swadharma is, the knowledge and performance of your own duty, with perfect confidence.
Hence, this site is named Swadharma, a name chosen by past members of Dharma. Join this site by registering and commenting, so that together we can answer this most important of questions.
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One Comment
Saketh, you hit on the exact question I have posed to my religion teacher countless times. Though that quote is one of my favorites, I never quite understood it. How am I supposed to know what my duty is, especially if the things I excel in are not necessarily my duties? Perhaps the creation of castes in the ancient times was an effort to guide people towards their duties. Right now the only thing I can be sure of is that it’s my duty to be a student – beyond that, I have no idea.
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