Why do we have a right to do prescribed duties as the Gita 2.47 states?

From Sushant Kulkarni

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Question from Sushant Kulkarni. Why do we have a right to do our prescribed duty? Answer.
Because we are souls who are by nature active and we have to do something. So at a spiritual level, we all have a right to love Krishna and we have a right to eternal relationship with him. At a material level also, as a part of our very nature, which is Satchitananda, although that is covered over by our material conditionings, our body and mind, but still Krishna provides us a means to getting happiness in this world in such a way that we can eventually become liberated from this world.
And that arrangement is the principle of swadharma, of doing our prescribed duties. So we all have a right to happiness and that right to happiness will eventually be attained when we become purified and attain Krishna’s lotus feet. And to attain that we need a method, we need a pathway.
And that pathway involves doing our prescribed duties. So by doing our prescribed duties, we purify our hearts. There is purification that is a result that comes.
Then there is social contribution also. When we serve according to our psychophysical nature, we contribute properly, effectively, substantially to society. And there is, of course, all this, which when you do with the right intention of wanting to please Krishna, then the progress happens much more fast.
So overall, it is to enable us to gain back our eternal life with Krishna, that Krishna provides a pathway. And in that sense, karma nye badhika areste, Krishna says that we have a right to do our prescribed duties. If Krishna deprived us of the right to do our prescribed duties, then he would be depriving us of the right to gaining happiness, either in this world or in the next world.
And essentially what is the right to prescribed duties essentially means that Krishna is providing us a path. And he’s saying that we have a right to that path to ultimately return back to him just like a prodigal son who has gone away from the father. The father will arrange for the son to have some way to maintain one’s living and to return back to him gradually.
So to stay alive in the journey back to their father. So that is the whole idea of prescribed duties. Now prescribed for those people who want to take a gradual path back to Godhead, then there is a greater emphasis on prescribed duties and lesser emphasis on the ultimate goal of transcendence.
For those who are wanting to go back fast, then there is a lesser emphasis on the prescribed duties specific form and a greater emphasis on the purification and the devotional intention. Either way, the whole point is that there is a master plan by Krishna for getting us back to him and the prescribed duties are a part of that master plan. And because we, because Krishna allows us, so he gives us the right to attain the supreme happiness that is our nature, that is our ultimate destination.
And he provides the path through the means of prescribed duties. Thank you.