How to choose Swadharma in 21st century?
started by tejasvee 4 mnths agoReplies
Let us take an example from bhagavadgita:
Satvic people with sama, dama, Tapas, saucham, kshanti and arjavam are well-suited to pursue gnyanam and vignyanam with asthikyam.
Gentle, serene, austere people with self-control, who maintain internal and external purity, and are straightforward and forgiving wishing everyone well, are well suited to pursue knowledge and gain wisdom through faith in the importance of deeper knowledge.
Humans find it easier to observe others more objectively them themselves. This is one of the reasons why sincere seekers look for a guru who can examine the natural tendencies of the student and recommend a suitable path. Through the help of a guru, one can gain a deeper and unbiased understanding of himself and his swadharma.
Remember that swadharma refers not only to the natural tendencies of the person (due mainly to differences in satva/rajo/tamo gunas) but also to how one conducts himself in society and in his relationship to the universe.
In other words, if one is more suited to succeed as an aeronautics engineer, it is unfortunate if he becomes a code coolie just to make money! If one is clumsy with his hands but chooses to become a surgeon to make money, society pays a heavy price for his wrong decision. If selfish and crooked people become heads of charitable organizations, what will happen to the organization? If a juvenile fanatic atheist becomes the Sankaracharya, what will happen to Kanchi matam? Just imagine a fanatical Islamist becoming a sculptor of Hindu idols! A society filled with such people will become chaotic with physical, psychological and financial problems.
Modern society, in fact, tries to choose “appropriate” people (without thinking about satva/rajo/tamo gunas, employers look for the related qualities when they hire employees) for appropriate vocations and jobs. In other words, there is always a structure in place that society embraces to try and make it functional. In an open society, there is room for improvement in these structures.
Regards.
Btw, Arjuna, and not Krishna, talked about kula etc. in the first chapter expressing his own confusion -- it is not an advice from Gita to people.
Similarly, Swadharma (Swa+dharma) just means one's duty (task or job) and Gita does not imply it to be a person's religion or faith.
Swadharma - Try to define this word in English. It is next to impossible. You say it is one's own occupation or path. I say it is one's own intrinsic quality, like Fire burns. Fire is not fire if it does not burn. So the authenticity of fire is to burn, which is its swadharma. But that cannot be applied to humans. Because apart from authenticity humans have an innate nature which is conditioned by three extra baggage. Man, Buddhi and Ahankar. Mind, Intellect and Ego. So the swadharma of a human being is conditioned by these three extraneous things which are inherent in him.
Forget Lord Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita. Now under the above criterion what is your swadharma?
Regards.
Rajaputhran.
If I knew what was my swadharma under those criterion, I wouldn't have asked the question here
This has been one of my querying points for quite some time now. How could Arjuna be convinced that by not following his 'Kshatriya' dharma (which I understood as swadharma of Arjuna), he was not doing the right thing?
-T
Unlike inanimate objects like fire or wood (The authenticity of fire is to burn and for wood to be dense) human beings cannot have a Swadharma without being conditioned by mind, intellect and ego. It is bound to be different for different humans. Hence I cannot impose my Swadharma on you, because your mind, intellect and the big daddy EGO will refuse to accept it. Within the confines of these three, supplemented by your intrinsic qualities you will have to evolve a Swadharma for you.
My swadharma is I am a Law unto myself. I am a Vanangamudi. I do not kow-tow to anybody. My Ego is insufferable. I am arrogant. I care a tuppence for authority. I buy people at my whim and fancy if they are buyable. I gladly pay their price, if they can subserve my interest. I love them to lick my boot. But with all these negative qualities I am dependable, and deliver what has to be delivered. My unwavering faith in myself in not uttering a falsehood, even if it costs my life, is the post on which I strap myself.
Suppose I impose myself on you and apply this yardstick, will you be able to survive?
Within your limitations, evolve and cognition will come. You will realise your Swadharma.
Regards.
Rajaputhran.
It is easy.
one makes thousands of decisions every day. you may be faced with a choice about what to eat? chewing gum, juice, Berger, roti etc. your mind will start telling you (based on its memory of previous pleasurable actions) that ras malayi would be good! - quite often we are simply swayed by our mind. But if we are MINDFUL, we ask ourselves the question what should I eat for well being of my body, mind and soul? you will automatically get a message directly from your soul- drink orange juice or something. This message is different for different circumstances, times and conditions but it is from all knowing soul. All other messages emerging from Chitta are memory, prejudice, laziness based garble, they are not Knowledge based at all.
This method of determining Swadharma was recommended by Natraja Guru, the second Guru in lineage of Naryana Guru of Kerala. Dialectical revaluation , consists in enquiring from one's own Aatman, what should I do? Atman does not care about money, politics or anything but the jeevatman requires some experiences to make it whole- this atman suggests karmas required by jeev atman so that it can become the paramatman. Enquiring again and again one will become skilled at recognizing the RIGHT ANSWER- voice of conscience in Christianity. This skill is acquired by practicing this skill all day, should I drink tea or coffee; play squash or tennis, do meditation or watch porn.... in simple matters soul will give unambiguous direction. As one gets better in this technique soul will start indicating if use of differential equations is better or use of statistical methods is better for solving an engineering problem. This is a self acquired skill, which is sharpened enormously if one is able to observe, the decision making by an enlightened master in his own milieu. Even an enlightened master can stumble in a bazaar or chandni Chowk but recovery is fast - one's own Atman is the only guide and skill in separating it's command from other bakwas going on in the mind is the only skill. Gita says Yoga is skill in works ( making the correct choice unerringly).
This provides guidance on right action at all times under all circumstances - but it is not a religion; It works for an individual and will take the practitioner to God but it is no good for preaching or dragging anybody else around.
Which occupation should I choose if I have to be labelled as doing my 'swadharma'?
Ask your self what profession is good for your body -mind -soul complex. after you have asked your self this question 100 times and gotten a response from your aatman like what you should do- you will see that you start getting a consistent answer after some random answers in the begining. Do what your atma wants.
If you are making the RIGHT CHOICE all day for all small or big decisions, you will automatically make the right decision in regard to your profession also. YOU ARE THE BEST JUDGE BECAUSE YOU (JEEVATMAN) ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN ASK FOR THIS GUIDANCE FROM ATMAN. Jeevatman due to delusions feels that it is bound and finite.
Tomorrow, if I want to change to Telecom industry as there could be more opportunities, will that become 'paradharma'? Will I be going against Krishna's advice by switching careers?
I caution u that it is against modern feministic thinking.
A woman's swadharma is to breed and raise her children, that's all. No more no less. The family is the God and there is no God else. That is the scriptural teaching.
Not ur IT or telecom or anything. That is ur pastime, not ur swadarma.
A lot of asking the self this question eventually validates the methodology once you are unerringly able to pick what your atman is born to do at a given instant.
even bhagwan has to have skill to act correctly all day, like go to bathroom, brush teeth etc. - Bhagwan Rama as vishnu avataar did this - he did not ask himself only once, what should be my career? It is a full time 24/7 skill of atman (awake jeevatman), normally Jeevatman is sleepy or drowsey and mind keeps taking weird decisions on the basis of likes and dislikes - can you seriously decide what should be your career based on the fact that your mind likes Pizza and beer - that is why dialectical revaluation questions the King atman many -many times, to wake it out of its stupor so that its servants, mind ego etc. fall in line. Swadharma is based on Jeevatman alone. it will be different based on what jeevatman wants at different times and in different circumstances. As jeevatman becomes more awake -it becomes like universal atman or God - it will then operate more and more like a mini God with much greater freedom in Dharma.
Now, Ur swadarma is not based on this. ACtually none of us are following our swadarma.
The caste system is gone, going almost. Hinduism is based on the four varnas, each varna allotted a dharma. If a brahmin is reciting his vedas along with being a doctor and taking free veda classes, ti means he is doing his swadarma in kaliyuga too, in some ways..
If a vaisya is doing business, it may be taken that he is performing his swadharma.
If a "sudra" is selling artifacts/ scultptures/cloth/ masornary items or anything remotely connected to his ancestral work, he is atleast partially doing his darma.
Only u can say what ur dharma is and try to perform it atleast in parts, if u care. OR nobody is going to beat u for not doing it. Nor will u go to hell for it.
Forexample there is a very good techie guy, who is making lots of money and has everything..but still he is not satisfied or happy..he does some introspection and find that he enjoys Mathematics a lot and misses it very much. He loves solving math problems and can lose his whole day doing that..now what can he do..He starts Math class for kids in the weekends and find his happiness there..just an example..
thats swadharma Krishna is talking about.
The reason I am bringing that up is that most people get either bored or find something more lucrative, necessitating them to make a career change. Are they ditching their swadharma? In your example, a person could hold onto to two of his/her passion, but in real life, most would just ditch the old profession.
But now I will leave before I get the customary bollocking from scribbling pad for interfering is the religious threads.
"Swadarma" is a concept defined by Sri Krishna in "Gita". If u have read "Gita" both sanskrit and the English translation, pl feel free to join us for a discussion. Actually, I am not sure if people like to discuss what is in the originals.
We like to say what we like to think and pretend all others are wrong.
There are innumerable Hindus with no knowledge of any of these things. ppl have displayed gross ignorance in their posts before. This inspite of being 60 plus etc...So ppl from other cults only add to the confusion. I guess there is nothing wrong afterall.
EVERYONE appears to be out of cult.
True swadarma is to perform the karma enjoined upon u by ur "kula".
Today all that is distorted beyond recogniton.So many surgeries performed on hindu religion, like the eradication of teh caste system. How would we understand this hoary dharma?
We like to think as we please and we dont like to hear of anything else.
Scribble,
I must say you hit the bull eye on this one. A simple reading of Gita says exactly what you said.
People try to make this politically correct by redefining the Dharma.
Gita clearly defines Dharma as Kula Dharma.
Now if the definition needs to be changed because the earlier definition is old and outdated, we should be honest enough to say so.
Society has croosed the Kula rubicon and entered a new a phase where caste has no role and hence Kula dharma does not mean anything.
In todays life, most of us stray upon our jobs by a combination of factors in which there is some choice and some real world selection and some compromise. Also the number of dharma also proliferated compared to 3000 years ago. So the method of putting a person in a Kula dharma no longer makes and is not practical and infact it is counter productive.
thanks.... thou hast uttered the truth.
Swadarma is kula darma.
Outdated and has no meaning in the modern context.
No use discussing it.
Hinduism has got transformed beyond recognition.
My loose translation:
Kula dharma = community's occupation
jati dharma = caste's occupation.
So there's a difference.
I am trying to digest your responses, VP's and Jatayu's. Still very confusing on a practical scale. Keep trying please. If you come across any good article, post it and I will reply back over the weekend.
Got to go.. 'Current' Swadharma calling
In the present day context it has no maening, teja.
Very few ppl are following their swadarma.
when after many years , even they stop it, samjho ki hindu daram ka anthim sanskaar ho gaya hai.
Then it is time for kalki to destroy everything and usher in a new satya yuga.
It is presumed dharma will be restored then and ppl will follow it for another lacs and lacs of years again.
Till then, we will be posting rubbish and trying to disagree with the same concept over and over again.I am weary of such ppl/
Swadharma
“It is better to do your own duty, however imperfectly, than to assume the duties of another person, however successfully.”1
Relative existence–and we who find ourselves evolving within it–is dual in nature, comprised of Consciousness and Energy. Krishna has just explained to us that our actions must match our energy-nature, our prakriti. Now he says that our actions, including our livelihood, must be consistent with our state of conscious, our swabhava.
Our swabhava is our inherent psychic disposition, our psychological nature. It is not just the ebb and flow of our mental and emotional tides on the surface of the mind, but its bedrock condition that prevails throughout any momentary fluctuations.
That mode of external life which is consistent with our swabhava is our swadharma, the mode of life and duty that is natural to us, being based on our karma and samskara. Our swadharma is consistent with our natural current of evolution. Swabhava and swadharma are the natural consequences of our present evolutionary status. They both match our prakriti.
Just as external restraint is worthless, so action not according to swadharma is wasted action and hinders our progress, sometimes even harming us. Therefore Krishna continues: “Prefer to die doing your own duty: the duty of another will bring you into great spiritual danger.”2 This is no small thing.
How do we determine our swadharma? Not by letting others tell us what it is or letting society impose it on us. (This is the great evil of the degenerate “caste system” of India which is far from Krishna’s concept when he speaks of caste.) The only way to intelligently perceive our swadharma is to engage in swadhyaya, self-analysis, as recommended by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, thus underlining the fact that yoga is inseparable from an ordered and meaningful life.
This self-analysis is both intellectual and intuitive, and our intellect and intuition must be developed through meditation if our endeavor is to succeed. We must discover and live out our swabhava through our swadharma. This is the only way to peace and harmony within ourself.
Caste system is pernicious only for u and me. During krishna's times it wasn't. Everyone thought it was the best and they feared that it would get broken. By breaking the caste system, we have broken the concept of swadarma.
do ur own darma evenif u are not good at it rather than another's darma-said by krishna has very simple understandable meanings which any one who has a simple frame of mind of those days cane asily grasp.
No need to apply any complex intellectual matter.
KRishna was a social reformer in many ways. But removing caste system was not part of his agenda.
He was a true hindu and he understood it as mandatory for following dharma.
This in terms of Katriya, vaisya,...etc,...that's all.
Now what gyanputra says sounds nice and applicable for people like us who are rudderless. Show some way i n a valley where the blind leads the blind.
No need for such specious analysis, actually.Anyway, it amy be helpful for u.
In Krishna's time caste was accepted, folks generally did their caste duties and Krishna had no problem with it- so far so good.
Krishna is telling Arjuna about special significance of Swadharma, why he is not concerned with stri(women) dharma or brahmin Dharma or Kula dharma - simple answer is that his concern is for Arjuna to have gyan of Brahmvidya. He is unwilling to give this knowledge to any one of his loving friends, wives and others because he feels that only Arjuna has the qualifications for receiving this knowledge.
Express aim of Krishna is to destroy the kshatriya caste so that Kali Yuga can start- this is stated in bhagvatham. I don't know where you get your info that Krishna was a social reformer- sounds like convent lingo. In Gita Krishna expressly states that those who are going to be dead in Mahabharata are already selected and enactment of their death drama is all that is left; for this reason even if Arjuna did not kill them they will be dead in any case and Arjuna need to be rid of this delusion that he is the "doer" in reality the results, doership in entirely in the hands of God.
Krishna is not true" hindu" ; krishna is beyond any classification and has advocated only universal knowledge to Arjuna (only) and not taken with lower stuff like rituals, caste system. knowledge of Gita is for Arjuna and via Arjuna for others, who have competent teachers - like an enlightened master to teach it. This knowledge is beyond most luminaries at the time of Mahabharata.
Gyanputra is stating his partial and humble understanding of Natraja Gurus's technique of dialectical revaluation- this is something like gyan yoga like enquiry.
If you are unfamiliar with the works of Nataraja Guru, the Gita (as it is commonly called) is probably a good place to start, as it is more easily accessible than his later works. By "accessible" we mean that although it is quite complex and perhaps not an easy read, there is nothing in it
One point-
KRishna didnot try to destroy Kshatreeya kula. He himself was a kshatreeya...period
parasurama was doing it. He was a brahmin and was killing kshatreeyas to avenge death of his dad Jamadagni who was killed by an arrogant king while doing tapas. But deeper layers are that, the best yugas were continuing with out end and it was time for kaliyuga to start. So it is explain it away, they say that he did it for that sake, considering that he
was an extremely good man.
With the end of Ksahtreeyas, Brahmins would get no protection. It was believed that kshatreeeysas protected brahnmins who were
1. defenceless
2. who would easily stray away from righeous path, if they were not given patronage
With the straying of brahmins, the power of kali would increase on and on, till it meets its own end soon.
Thanks for sharing with ur carefully worded comment
regards