Duty & Calling

Svadharma — one's own work and responsibility — 84 verses, starred ones first.

1. 1.1 ★ A blind king asks what happened on the battlefield — and the Gita begins.
2. 3.19 ★ Therefore: do your required action without attachment — this is the path that leads to the Supreme.
3. 3.35 ★ Your own imperfect path beats another's perfect path. Death in your own dharma is better. Another's dharma brings fear.
4. 4.7 ★ Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises — I project Myself forth. The divine responds to every crisis.
5. 4.8 ★ For the protection of the good, destruction of wickedness, establishment of dharma — I come, age after age.
6. 11.32 ★ I am Time, the world-destroyer — even without you, none of these warriors shall survive; they are already slain!
7. 14.27 ★ Krishna declares: 'I am the ground of Brahman — the Immortal, the Immutable, eternal Dharma, and perfect Bliss.'
8. 18.66 ★ Abandon all dharmas, take refuge in Me alone — I will liberate you from all sins; do not grieve.
9. 18.78 ★ Where yogeśvara Kṛṣṇa is, where archer Pārtha stands — there abide fortune, victory, flourishing, and steadfast dharma.
10. 1.28 ☆ Arjuna sees his own people ready to die — and his body breaks before his mind can argue.
11. 2.7 ☆ I am your student. My mind is bewildered about what is right. Teach me.
12. 3.16 ☆ Whoever does not turn the cosmic wheel of giving — living only for sense-pleasure — lives in vain.
13. 6.1 ☆ Who acts in duty without depending on fruit — that one is the true sannyāsī and yogī, not the fireless or the inactive.
14. 15.20 ☆ This most secret śāstra spoken — knowing it, one becomes truly wise and kṛta-kṛtya: all duties fulfilled.
15. 18.9 ☆ Sāttvic tyāga: niyata karma done ONLY because 'this must be done,' having abandoned attachment and fruit.
16. 18.55 ☆ By bhakti one truly knows what and who I am; then knowing Me truly, one enters into Me immediately.
17. 1.5 More allies enumerated — every hero named is a responsibility Duryodhana must account for.
18. 1.8 Duryodhana lists his greatest champions — and every name carries its own tragic irony.
19. 1.9 Men are ready to die 'for my sake' — and Duryodhana names this fact without apparent weight.
20. 1.14 The divine chariot answers — Krishna and Arjuna's conches fill the sky.
21. 1.16 Yudhishthira, Nakula, Sahadeva — each sounding his own note in the symphony of dharma.
22. 1.17 More allied voices join — the sound of dharma's coalition builds.
23. 1.19 The sound of righteous forces pierces the hearts of those who know they are on the wrong side.
24. 1.23 Arjuna calls Duryodhana evil-minded — the last moment of moral clarity before grief clouds everything.
25. 1.25 Krishna says: 'Look.' Two words that will change everything.
26. 1.26 He looked — and saw everyone he has ever loved, lined up to kill or be killed.
27. 1.27 Even the fathers-in-law and dearest friends — on both sides. No one is safely 'other.'
28. 1.31 Victory without the people you love — what does it cost, and what is it worth?
29. 1.32 What is a kingdom for, if all those you wanted to share it with are dead?
30. 1.33 The people who shaped him — teachers, father-figures, sons — are on the field, ready to die.
31. 1.34 I would rather be killed than kill them — a statement of love that goes beyond self-preservation.
32. 1.36 Even the legal right to kill aggressors doesn't make it right — for Arjuna, love supersedes law.
33. 1.37 Greed blinds the other side — but we can still see. That sight is both burden and responsibility.
34. 1.38 We can see this is wrong — why would we do it anyway?
35. 1.39 When families collapse, the traditions that hold communities together collapse with them.
36. 1.40 When order collapses, the most vulnerable members of society suffer first.
37. 1.41 The dead depend on the living — break the chain of care and the ancestors fall.
38. 1.42 Every pillar of social order that took generations to build — destroyed in one war.
39. 1.43 Tradition says this is a path to hell — and we are about to walk it knowingly.
40. 1.45 Better to die with clean hands than to win with blood on them.
41. 2.4 How do you raise a weapon against the teacher who made you?
42. 2.18 Bodies end — the soul does not. Therefore: fight.
43. 2.21 If you know the soul is indestructible — who kills whom?
44. 2.31 For a warrior, there is nothing higher than a righteous battle — this is your svadharma.
45. 2.32 This battle came to you unsought — the rarest opportunity for a warrior to fulfill their highest duty.
46. 2.33 If you don't fight this righteous battle, you abandon your duty and honor — and invite the consequences.
47. 2.38 Treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as equal — then engage. No sin follows from this.
48. 3.8 Do your prescribed duty. Action is better than inaction — even the body cannot be maintained without it.
49. 3.12 Enjoy the gifts of existence without giving back — the Gita calls that theft. Participate, don't just consume.
50. 3.17 The fully self-realized person has no binding duty — their joy, satisfaction, and fullness come entirely from within.
51. 3.23 If even I stopped acting, humans would follow. The great one's withdrawal is never neutral.
52. 3.24 If the great one withdraws, the worlds collapse and they become the cause of chaos — not a neutral bystander.
53. 7.11 I am the strength of the strong, free from craving — and the desire in beings that does not conflict with dharma.
54. 9.21 When Vedic merit is exhausted, soma-drinkers return from heaven to the mortal world, going and coming.
55. 10.24 Among priests know Me as Bṛhaspati; among generals I am Skanda — and among waters, the ocean.
56. 10.29 Among Nāgas I am Ananta; among water-beings, Varuṇa; among the ancestors, Aryamā; among those who judge, Yama.
57. 10.31 Of purifiers I am the wind; among warriors, Rāma; among fish, the shark; among rivers, the Gaṅgā.
58. 11.18 You are the Imperishable, the Supreme — Refuge of all, undying Guardian of Eternal Dharma, Ancient Puruṣa.
59. 12.20 Those who follow this nectar of dharma with śraddhā, taking Me as supreme — they are EXCEEDINGLY dear to Me!
60. 17.11 Sāttvic yajña: performed as ordained, without fruit-desire, with the conviction 'this must be done.'
61. 17.20 Sāttvic dāna: given with 'this must be given,' to one expecting no return, at right place, time, and recipient.
62. 17.22 Tāmasic dāna: given at wrong place/time, to unworthy recipients, without respect, with contempt.
63. 18.3 Some say all karma is faulty and should be abandoned; others say yajña-dāna-tapas must not be abandoned.
64. 18.6 Even yajña-dāna-tapas must be performed having abandoned attachment and fruits — my settled, highest opinion.
65. 18.24 Rājasic karma: done desiring pleasures or with ego-pride, involving great effort.
66. 18.31 Rājasic buddhi: imperfectly/wrongly discerns dharma-adharma and kārya-akārya — not as they really are.
67. 18.32 Tāmasic buddhi: enveloped in darkness, sees adharma as dharma, all things inverted and perverted.
68. 18.34 Rājasic dhṛti: holds fast to dharma, kāma, and artha with attachment, desiring the fruit of each.
69. 18.40 No being — neither on earth nor among the devas in heaven — is free from these three guṇas born of Prakṛti.
70. 18.41 The duties of Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras are distributed by the guṇas born of their own nature.
71. 18.42 Brāhmaṇa dharma: śama, dama, tapas, purity, forbearance, uprightness, knowledge, wisdom, faith — born of svabhāva.
72. 18.43 Kṣatriya dharma: bravery, vigor, fortitude, skill, not-fleeing-battle, generosity, lordly bearing — born of svabhāva.
73. 18.44 Vaiśya dharma: agriculture, cattle-care, trade — born of svabhāva. Śūdra dharma: service — born of svabhāva.
74. 18.45 Devoted each to his own duty, a person attains complete perfection — hear how one so devoted finds siddhi.
75. 18.46 From whom all beings arise, by whom all is pervaded — worshiping THAT through one's own duty, one attains perfection.
76. 18.47 One's own dharma even imperfectly done is better than another's well done; svabhāva-ordained karma incurs no sin.
77. 18.48 Do not abandon one's innate duty even if imperfect — all undertakings are enveloped by fault as fire by smoke.
78. 18.49 The unattached-minded, self-conquered, desire-free one attains supreme naiskarmya-siddhi through sannyāsa.
79. 18.50 Learn briefly from Me how one who has attained siddhi attains Brahman — the supreme culmination of knowledge.
80. 18.51 Endued with pure buddhi, regulating self with dhṛti, renouncing sense-objects, setting aside rāga-dveṣa —
81. 18.56 Even doing all actions always, with refuge in Me — by My grace one attains the eternal imperishable abode.
82. 18.68 Whoever teaches this supreme secret among My devotees, with supreme bhakti — comes to Me without doubt.
83. 18.70 Whoever studies this sacred dialogue — by him I shall have been worshipped by jñāna-yajña; such is My conviction.
84. 18.76 O King, as I recall this wondrous holy dialogue between Keśava and Arjuna again and again, I rejoice again and again.