Chapter 3 · The yoga of action
Bhagavad Gita 3.35
Better one’s own duty, however flawed.
Shri Bhagavan
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् ।
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः ॥
śreyānsvadharmo viguṇaḥ paradharmātsvanuṣṭhitāt / svadharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ paradharmo bhayāvahaḥ
Your own svadharma, even carried out imperfectly, is better than another's dharma done well. It is better to die in your own dharma; another's brings danger.
हिंदी · अपना स्वधर्म, चाहे अधूरा ही निभे, दूसरे के धर्म से श्रेष्ठ है जो भले ही अच्छी तरह निभाया गया हो। अपने धर्म में मरना भी अच्छा है; पराया धर्म भय लाता है।
What it means
Better one’s own duty, however flawed.
Your own duty, even done imperfectly, is better than another’s duty done well. It is better even to die in one’s own dharma; another’s dharma brings fear.
This is the Trust’s own reading, written for this site. The verse above it is the text.
Verses that share its vocabulary
Near it in the text’s own words.
- 18.47Better is one's own duty, though imperfectly done, than another's duty well carried out. Doing the work appointed by one's own nature, a person incurs no fault.
- 2.31Look also to your own duty, and do not waver. For one born to protect, there is nothing better than a fight that is right.
- 2.33But if you will not fight this rightful fight, then you will have abandoned your own duty and your good name, and you will take on wrong instead.
- 2.40Here no effort is wasted, and nothing goes backwards. Even a little of this dharma protects a man from great fear.
- 2.35The great warriors will think you left the field out of fear. Those who held you high will hold you cheap.
- 2.56Untroubled in sorrow, without craving in happiness, free of longing, fear and anger — such a person is called a sage of steady understanding.
Chosen by shared uncommon vocabulary, weighted so that a rare word counts for far more than a common one. A reading aid, not a claim that these verses mean the same thing.