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Chapter 2. Contents
of the Gita Summarized
TEXT 31
sva-dharmam api caveksya
na vikampitum arhasi
dharmyad dhi yuddhac chreyo 'nyat
ksatriyasya na vidyate
SYNONYMS
 sva-dharmam--one's
own religious principles; api--also; ca--indeed; aveksya--considering;
na--never;
vikampitum--to hesitate; arhasi--you deserve;
dharmyat--from
religious principles; hi--indeed; yuddhat--than fighting;
sreyah--better engagements; anyat--anything else;
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 is being
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
the killing of 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 in 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 that 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 varnasrama-dharma serves to elevate one to a higher status
of life.
  
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