Svadharma(Sanskrit:स्वधर्म) is a term (from sva: proper, and dharma: law, duty)[1]which, inHinduism,designates the duties of an individual, according to hissocial class,casteor natural disposition, which he must follow.[2]
Bhagavad-Gita
editThe term is used in theBhagavad 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]and18:47"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 toSri 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
editReferences
edit- ^"Sanskritdictionary: Definition of svadharma".sanskritdictionary.Retrieved28 October2023.
- ^Jean Filliozat,«Dharma»,Encyclopædia Universalis,French:https:// universalis.fr/encyclopedie/dharma/
- ^Universalis, Encyclopædia."BRAHMANISME".Encyclopædia Universalis(in French).Retrieved2023-10-28.
- ^The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Sri Aurobindo, Chapter III Karmayoga, 35
- ^The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Sri Aurobindo Chapter XVIII Renunciation and Moksha, 47
- ^Sri Aurobindo,Essays on the Gita, Second Series, Part II, Chapter 20, Swabhava and Swadharma, pg. 502,