Chapter 2, Verse 31

Sanskrit

स्वधर्ममपि चावेक्ष्य न विकम्पितुमर्हसि। धर्म्याद्धि युद्धाच्छ्रेयोऽन्यत्क्षत्रियस्य न विद्यते॥

Transliteration

sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya na vikampitum arhasi dharmyād dhi yuddhāc chreyo ‘nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate

Translation

Considering your own dharma, you ought not to falter. For a kshatriya, there is no greater good than a righteous battle.

Concepts discussed

• swadharma — the verse’s operative term; one’s own dharma
• dharma — the broader category swadharma inherits from
• arjuna — the kshatriya being reminded of his role-duty
• karma-yoga — the framework this verse opens toward

Swami’s commentary

2.31 inaugurates Krishna’s second argument. Setting Vedanta aside, there is a practical, role-grounded argument: Arjuna is a kshatriya; a kshatriya’s swadharma is to fight in a righteous war; to walk away is to abandon his own dharma for someone else’s. This is not a metaphysical claim but an ethical one — and Krishna makes it on the assumption that Arjuna may not yet be able to receive the metaphysical argument.

Swami underlines the key word swadharma: sva means “own.” Not dharma in the abstract — the dharma that falls to you, given your training, your situation, the moment in front of you. A brahmin’s swadharma is not a kshatriya’s; a householder’s is not a sannyasin’s. The Gita’s famous later formulation (3.35) is latent here: “better one’s own dharma poorly done than another’s dharma well done.”

The argument is available across registers. On the Vedantic reading, atman is beyond the battle — so act. On the swadharma reading, a kshatriya’s duty is to fight a righteous battle — so act. The conclusion converges.

Episode 12 [51:01–end]: 2.31 begins the kshatriya-dharma argument; swadharma defined; the next eight verses (2.31–2.38) all belong to this second register.