If we do someone else’s work well, then is that work is our nature?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Question from Yashwini Shukla. If we are able to do someone else’s nature perfectly, doesn’t that mean that we have that nature itself and that’s why we are able to do it perfectly? Answer, yes. There is, in general, if we work according to our nature, there is external competence and there is internal comfort.
That is the meaning of guna karmal bhagat, Krishna. We internally have the guna, the qualities for doing it, and karma, externally we have the skills for doing it. So we will be competent externally in doing it and internally we will feel confident.
So that confidence and competence are characteristics of acting according to our nature. So when Krishna is saying in the verse, श्रेयान सधर्मो भिगुणा परधर्माच विष्टितार् श्रेया परधर्मो भयावा that it’s better to do one’s own duty rather than to do another’s duty. He is talking about a social context where people’s nature was clearly known.
Arjuna was clearly a Kshatriya and Arjuna was thinking that this violence against my relatives is very bad, so better I’ll not be violent and I will be non-violent, forgiving, peaceful like a Brahmana. So Krishna was telling Arjuna, don’t think that that will work for you because you don’t have a Brahmanical nature. So work according to your nature as a Kshatriya, even if sometimes Kshatriya duties require you to do something that is uncomfortable, something that is distressing also.
So the point is, in present situation where because of many generations of inter-caste marriages and mixing of Varanas, the determination of Varana is quite difficult. So rather than trying to stereotype this verse in terms of what is my nature and what is not my nature, we focus on observing ourselves and seeking guidance from our guides who also observe us to understand what our nature is and to engage ourselves accordingly. So whatever we are good at, that means good at means we are externally competent, internally confident, then that we can understand is our nature.
So yes, if we are able to do someone else’s nature activity properly, then that means whatever we thought was our nature is not our nature. Rather, this what we are considering as someone else’s nature is actually our nature. And in general, the important point is that what Krishna emphasizes is don’t think that someone else’s occupation will be easier than your own occupation and therefore run away from your occupation because the grass always seems greener on the other side.
And the point of the verse is that don’t try to escape to some other situation thinking that that will be better. Because even when we work according to our nature, there will be challenges and one has to deal with those challenges. Arjuna was a Kshatriya but that did not mean that life as a Kshatriya was rosy for him.
As a Kshatriya also he had to face challenges. But he had to face Kshatriya challenges. As a warrior, he had to face challenges as a warrior.
And he faced those challenges by Krishna’s guidance. So the point of this verse is that don’t run away from challenges while acting according to your nature by thinking that doing some other occupation, having some other career, choosing some other vocation, that will make my life easier. Basically the point of the verse is don’t seek escape ways like this.
So whatever you are good at, whatever is our nature, we act according to that and when there are challenges in that, we face those challenges gallantly. Thank you. So if you understand that the soul is eternal, the body is perishable