Talks on the Gita -Vinoba 168

Chapter 14 THE GUNAS: DEVELOPING THEM AND GOING BEYOND THEM 79. How To Determine One’s Swadharma? 17. How to determine one’s swadharma? If someone asks this question, the only reply is that it is natural. Swadharma comes naturally to everyone. The very idea of going in search of it is strange. Swadharma of a man is born along with him. Swadharma, like one’s mother, is not chosen, but pre-determined. It is given to us in advance, before we are born. The world existed before we were born and it will be there when we are no more. We were born into a stream of existence; we are a part of a continuum. Service of our parents and our neighbours is our naturally accrued duty. We also have the experience of our inborn natural urges; they are common to all. We feel hunger and thirst; it is therefore our natural dharma to feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty. Serving others, doing good to others, is thus our dharma which we do not have to go in search for. In fact, if we find that there is a search on for swadharma, it is a sure sign that there is something vitally wrong, that something is being done which is neither rightful nor righteous. A man devoted to service does not have to search for the type and form of service; he finds his work laid out before him. But it has to be borne in mind that what appears to have come unsought is not necessarily a righteous duty. Suppose a farmer comes to me at night and says, “Let us shift the fence of my farm by a few feet so that the area of my farm will be larger. We can do it unnoticed.” Although this work has certainly come unsought before me, it is clearly not my duty, as it is unethical.