Bhagavad Gita · 3.35 · Path of Selfless Service·35 of 43

श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्।स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः ॥

śhreyān swa-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt

sv-anuṣhṭhitāt swa-dharme nidhanaṁ śhreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ

Sanskrit recitation

3.34 3.36

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Your work, not someone else’s · 3.30–3.35 · Teaching

Translation

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.

Meaning

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. (Cf.XVIII.47).

After Swami Sivananda

Your work, not someone else’s· 3.30–3.35→

Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.

3.30Renouncing all actions in Me, with the mind centered on the Self, free from hope and egoism, and from mental fever, fight thou.
3.31Those who constantly practice this teaching of Mine with faith and without caviling, they too are freed from actions.
3.32But those who criticize My teaching and do not practice it, deprived of all knowledge and lacking discernment, know them to be doomed to destruction.
3.33Even a wise man acts in accordance with his own nature; beings will follow their nature; what can restraint do?
3.34Attachment and aversion for the objects of the senses abide in the senses; let no one come under their sway; for, they are his enemies.
3.35Better 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.

Word-by-word→

nidhanam: death
śhreyān: better
swa-dharme: in one’s personal duties
śhreyaḥ: better
viguṇaḥ: tinged with faults
para-dharmāt: than another’s prescribed duties
swa-dharmaḥ: personal duty
para-dharmaḥ: duties prescribed for others
bhaya-āvahaḥ: fraught with fear
su-anuṣhṭhitāt: perfectly done

श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्।स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः ॥

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