Srimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Chapter 2, TEXT 31:
sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya
na vikampitum arhasi
dharmyād dhi yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat
kṣatriyasya na vidyate
SYNONYMS
svadharmam—one's
own religious principles; api—also; ca—indeed;
avekṣya—considering; na—never; vikampitum—to hesitate; arhasi—you
deserve; dharmyāt—from
religious principles; hi—indeed; yuddhāt—of fighting; śreyaḥ—better
engagements; anyat—anything
else; kṣatriyasya—of
the kṣatriya; na—does not;
vidyate—exist.
TRANSLATION
Considering your specific duty as a kṣatriya, 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 kṣatriya. Kṣat means hurt. One who gives protection
from harm is called kṣatriya
(trayate—to give protection). The kṣatriyas are
trained for killing in the forest. A kṣatriya
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 is being followed even up to the present day by
the kṣatriya kings of Jaipur state. The kṣatriyas are
specially trained for challenging and killing because religious violence is
sometimes a necessary factor. Therefore, kṣatriyas are never meant for
accepting directly the order of sannyāsa
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:
āhaveṣu mitho 'nyonyaṁ jighāṁsanto mahīkṣitaḥ
yuddhamānāḥ paraṁ śaktyā svargaṁ yānty aparāṅmukhāḥ
yajñeṣu paśavo brahman hanyante satataṁ dvijaiḥ
saṁskṛtāḥ kila mantraiś ca te 'pi svargam avāpnuvan.
yuddhamānāḥ paraṁ śaktyā svargaṁ yānty aparāṅmukhāḥ
yajñeṣu paśavo brahman hanyante satataṁ dvijaiḥ
saṁskṛtāḥ kila mantraiś ca te 'pi svargam avāpnuvan.
"In the battlefield, a king or kṣatriya, while fighting another king envious of
him, is eligible for achieving heavenly planets after death, as the brāhmaṇas
also attain the heavenly planets by sacrificing animals in the sacrificial
fire." Therefore, killing on the battle on the religious principle and the
killing of animals in the sacrificial fire are not at all considered to be acts
of violence, because everyone is benefitted 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
kṣatriyas killed in the battlefield also attain the heavenly planets as do the
brāhmaṇas who attain them by offering sacrifice.
There are two kinds of svadharmas, specific duties. As
long as one is not liberated, one has to perform the duties of that particular
body in accordance with religious principles in order to achieve liberation.
When one is liberated, one's svadharma—specific duty—becomes spiritual and is
not in the material bodily concept. In the bodily conception of life there are
specific duties for the brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas respectively, and such duties
are unavoidable. Svadharma is ordained by the Lord, and this will be clarified
in the Fourth Chapter. On the bodily plane svadharma is called varṇāśrama-dharma,
or man's steppingstone for spiritual understanding. Human civilization begins
from the stage of varṇāśrama-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 varṇāśrama-dharma serves to elevate one to a higher status of
life.
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