Bg 3.34
indriyasyendriyasyārthe rāga-dveṣau vyavasthitau
tayor na vaśam āgacchet tau hy asya paripanthinau
Bg 3.35
śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣṭhitāt
sva-dharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ
Translation:
34. Attachment and aversion for the objects of the senses abide in the senses; let none come under their sway; for they are his foes.
35. Better is one's own 'duty' , though devoid of merit, than the 'duty' of another well discharged. Better is death in one's own 'duty' ; the 'duty' of another is fraught with fear (is productive of positive danger) .
Commentary Excerpts:
Krishna indicates here the great robber in the 'within' of man, which loots away the true joys and thrills of 'right living.' Attachments and aversions of the sense-organs for their respective sense-objects are instinctive, and natural, in every one. The sense-objects by themselves are incapable of bringing any wave of sorrow or agitation into the 'within.' We get agitated and disturbed not at our sense-organs, but in our mind. The mind gets disturbed because, when the stimuli reach the mind, it accepts, in its inherent mischief, certain types of stimuli as GOOD, and their opposites as BAD. Thereafter, it gets attached to the stimuli it experiences as good and develops an aversion for the opposite type of stimuli. Now the mind is prepared to suffer the agonies of existence in the sorrowful plurality. Whenever it comes in contact with the infinite number of objects outside, it pants to court the things of its own attachment and labours to run away from the things of its own aversion. This excitement of the mind is truly 'its tragedy.'
Having stated this Truth, Krishna advises all seekers:
"LET NONE COME UNDER THEIR SWAY."
The philosophy of Geeta does not suggest, even in its implications, any kind of running away from the world-of-sense-objects. Krishna's creed is to live HERE and NOW, in the midst of situations in life, in this very world, and to experience them through our sacred vehicles of the body, mind, and intellect. The only insistence is that on all occasions, a wise man should be a master of the vehicles and not a helpless victim of these matter-envelopments. And the secret of this mastery in life is to live free from the tyrannies of attachments and aversions.
In order to detach ourselves from both our likes and dislikes, we have to get rid of our false ego-centric vanities. Likes and dislikes belong to the ego. Therefore, all ego-less acts, as we have explained earlier, accomplish a purgation of Vasanas. Vasanas create the mind; where the mind is, there revels the ego. To the extent the Vasanas have been reduced, to that extent the mind has become non-existent. Where the mind has ended, there the reflection of the Consciousness called the "ego" has also ended.
The word Dharma in Sanskrit is the most elusive word for translation into English. It is used generally in more than one definite meaning. Terms like righteousness, good conduct, duty, noble quality, etc., are some of them. We have explained it earlier and found how Dharma essentially means "the Law of being" of anything in the world.
That which determines one man's personality as distinctly different from another's, it is very well known, is the texture of the thoughts entertained by him. This texture of his thoughts is, again, in its turn, determined by the pattern of thinking (vasanas), which his mind has gained from its own past. These pre-determined 'channels-of-thinking' created by one's own earlier ways of thinking are called the Vasanas. Thus Dharma should be conceived here as the Vasanas in our mind, for no other explanation will be correct since the very discussion now is upon mental control. The word "duty," used by us in our translation, is, in this special sense, to be understood as Vasanas."
Swadharma AND Para dharma --- Swadharma is not the duty which accrues to an individual because of his "caste," which is ever a sheer accident of birth. In its right import Swadharma means the type of Vasanas that one discovers in one's own mind. To act according to one's own taste, inborn and natural, is the only known method of living in peace and joy, in success and satisfaction. To act against thegrain of one's own Vasanas would be acting in terms of Para dharma --- and that this is fraught with danger is very well known.
In the context of the Geeta, there is a direct message for Arjuna. Arjuna is born a prince, trained in the art of war and has exhibited in his life his insatiable thirst for heroism and adventure. Naturally, his Swadharma is that of a prince and that can find fulfilment only in dangerous actions and endless exertions. Perhaps, as it was evident in the first chapter, Prince Arjuna had gathered during his early education, that the life of renunciation and meditation --- the life of a Brahmin --- was nobler than his own life. And therefore, he wanted to run away from the battle-field into the silent caves-of-meditation. In this stanza, Krishna reminds him that to act according to his own Vasanas, even imperfectly, is the right path for his development. It is dangerous to suppress his own personality-expression and copy the activities of someone else, even if he be living a nobler and diviner life.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
indriyasyendriyasyārthe rāga-dveṣau vyavasthitau
tayor na vaśam āgacchet tau hy asya paripanthinau
Bg 3.35
śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣṭhitāt
sva-dharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ
Translation:
34. Attachment and aversion for the objects of the senses abide in the senses; let none come under their sway; for they are his foes.
35. Better is one's own 'duty' , though devoid of merit, than the 'duty' of another well discharged. Better is death in one's own 'duty' ; the 'duty' of another is fraught with fear (is productive of positive danger) .
Commentary Excerpts:
Krishna indicates here the great robber in the 'within' of man, which loots away the true joys and thrills of 'right living.' Attachments and aversions of the sense-organs for their respective sense-objects are instinctive, and natural, in every one. The sense-objects by themselves are incapable of bringing any wave of sorrow or agitation into the 'within.' We get agitated and disturbed not at our sense-organs, but in our mind. The mind gets disturbed because, when the stimuli reach the mind, it accepts, in its inherent mischief, certain types of stimuli as GOOD, and their opposites as BAD. Thereafter, it gets attached to the stimuli it experiences as good and develops an aversion for the opposite type of stimuli. Now the mind is prepared to suffer the agonies of existence in the sorrowful plurality. Whenever it comes in contact with the infinite number of objects outside, it pants to court the things of its own attachment and labours to run away from the things of its own aversion. This excitement of the mind is truly 'its tragedy.'
Having stated this Truth, Krishna advises all seekers:
"LET NONE COME UNDER THEIR SWAY."
The philosophy of Geeta does not suggest, even in its implications, any kind of running away from the world-of-sense-objects. Krishna's creed is to live HERE and NOW, in the midst of situations in life, in this very world, and to experience them through our sacred vehicles of the body, mind, and intellect. The only insistence is that on all occasions, a wise man should be a master of the vehicles and not a helpless victim of these matter-envelopments. And the secret of this mastery in life is to live free from the tyrannies of attachments and aversions.
In order to detach ourselves from both our likes and dislikes, we have to get rid of our false ego-centric vanities. Likes and dislikes belong to the ego. Therefore, all ego-less acts, as we have explained earlier, accomplish a purgation of Vasanas. Vasanas create the mind; where the mind is, there revels the ego. To the extent the Vasanas have been reduced, to that extent the mind has become non-existent. Where the mind has ended, there the reflection of the Consciousness called the "ego" has also ended.
The word Dharma in Sanskrit is the most elusive word for translation into English. It is used generally in more than one definite meaning. Terms like righteousness, good conduct, duty, noble quality, etc., are some of them. We have explained it earlier and found how Dharma essentially means "the Law of being" of anything in the world.
That which determines one man's personality as distinctly different from another's, it is very well known, is the texture of the thoughts entertained by him. This texture of his thoughts is, again, in its turn, determined by the pattern of thinking (vasanas), which his mind has gained from its own past. These pre-determined 'channels-of-thinking' created by one's own earlier ways of thinking are called the Vasanas. Thus Dharma should be conceived here as the Vasanas in our mind, for no other explanation will be correct since the very discussion now is upon mental control. The word "duty," used by us in our translation, is, in this special sense, to be understood as Vasanas."
Swadharma AND Para dharma --- Swadharma is not the duty which accrues to an individual because of his "caste," which is ever a sheer accident of birth. In its right import Swadharma means the type of Vasanas that one discovers in one's own mind. To act according to one's own taste, inborn and natural, is the only known method of living in peace and joy, in success and satisfaction. To act against thegrain of one's own Vasanas would be acting in terms of Para dharma --- and that this is fraught with danger is very well known.
In the context of the Geeta, there is a direct message for Arjuna. Arjuna is born a prince, trained in the art of war and has exhibited in his life his insatiable thirst for heroism and adventure. Naturally, his Swadharma is that of a prince and that can find fulfilment only in dangerous actions and endless exertions. Perhaps, as it was evident in the first chapter, Prince Arjuna had gathered during his early education, that the life of renunciation and meditation --- the life of a Brahmin --- was nobler than his own life. And therefore, he wanted to run away from the battle-field into the silent caves-of-meditation. In this stanza, Krishna reminds him that to act according to his own Vasanas, even imperfectly, is the right path for his development. It is dangerous to suppress his own personality-expression and copy the activities of someone else, even if he be living a nobler and diviner life.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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