Svadharma (Sanskrit: स्वधर्म) is a term (from sva: proper, and dharma: law, duty)[1] which, in Hinduism, designates the duties of an individual, according to his social class, caste or natural disposition, which he must follow.[2]

Bhagavad-Gita

The term is used in the Bhagavad Gita:[3] 3:35 "Better is one's own law of works, swadharma, though in itself faulty than an alien law well-wrought out; death in one's own law of being is better, perilous is it to follow an alien law."[4] and 18:47 "Better is one's own law of works, though in itself faulty, than an alien law well-wrought out. One does not incur sin when one acts in agreement with the law of one's own nature [svabhāva]."[5]

According to Sri Aurobindo, "in Nature each of us has a principle and will of our own becoming; each soul is a force of self-consciousness that formulates an idea of the Divine in it and guides by that its action and evolution, its progressive self-finding, its constant varying self-expression, its apparently uncertain but secretly inevitable growth to fullness. That is our Swabhava, our own real nature; that is our truth of being which is finding now only a constant partial expression in our various becoming in the world. The law of action determined by this Swabhava is our right law of self-shaping, function, working, our Swadharma."[6]

See also

References

  1. "Sanskritdictionary.com: Definition of svadharma". sanskritdictionary.com. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  2. Jean Filliozat, «Dharma», Encyclopædia Universalis, French: https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/dharma/
  3. Universalis, Encyclopædia. "BRAHMANISME". Encyclopædia Universalis (in French). Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  4. The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Sri Aurobindo, Chapter III Karmayoga, 35
  5. The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Sri Aurobindo Chapter XVIII Renunciation and Moksha, 47
  6. Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Second Series, Part II, Chapter 20, Swabhava and Swadharma, pg. 502,
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