BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:31

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:31

 

sva-dharmam api caveksya

na vikampitum arhasi

dharmyad dhi yuddhac chreyo 'nyat

ksatriyasya na vidyate

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

sva-dharmam--one's own religious principles; api--also; ca--indeed;

aveksya--considering; na--never; vikampitum--to hesitate; arhasi--you

deserve; dharmyat--for religious principles; hi--indeed; yuddhat--than

fighting; sreyah--better engagement; anyat--any other; ksatriyasya--of

the ksatriya; na--does not; vidyate--exist.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Considering your specific duty as a ksatriya, you should know that

there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious

principles; and so there is no need for hesitation.

 

PURPORT

 

Out of the four orders of social administration, the second order, for

the matter of good administration, is called ksatriya. Ksat means

hurt. One who gives protection from harm is called ksatriya

(trayate--to give protection). The ksatriyas are trained for killing

in the forest. A ksatriya 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

ksatriya kings of Jaipur state. The ksatriyas are specially trained

for challenging and killing because religious violence is sometimes a

necessary factor. Therefore, ksatriyas are never meant for accepting

directly the order of sannyasa, 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:

 

ahavesu mitho 'nyonyam

jighamsanto mahi-ksitah

yuddhamanah param saktya

svargam yanty aparan-mukhah

yajnesu pasavo brahman

hanyante satatam dvijaih

samskrtah kila mantrais ca

te 'pi svargam avapnuvan

 

"In the battlefield, a king or ksatriya, while fighting another king envious

of him, is eligible for achieving heavenly planets after death, as the

brahmanas 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 ksatriyas

killed on the battlefield also attain the heavenly planets as do the

brahmanas who attain them by offering sacrifice.

 

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 brahmanas and

ksatriyas respectively, and such duties are unavoidable. Sva-dharma is

ordained by the Lord, and this will be clarified in the Fourth

Chapter. On the bodily plane sva-dharma is called varnasrama-dharma,

or man's steppingstone for spiritual understanding. Human civilization

begins from the stage of varnasrama-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.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.