Swabhavik actions lead to all-round success, not the acquired ones!
By Vivek Sharma
Over 99% of man’s miseries are born of his wish to be what he cannot be. Why I use the phrase ‘cannot be’ has a logic. Everybody is born with innate qualities to perceive, understand and do things. They are the effect of a series of verified experiences in their past lives. That is called swabhav by Krishna. Swabhav is the sum total of your natural inclinations. But, man is not limited to these alone. He has trishna, greed and hunger too which make him acquire inclinations through social interactions. They are mainly born of comparisons. This makes you acquire superficial inclinations with an underlying realisation that you must have those qualities for they shall stand you out as they did a particular person. So far nothing wrong. But, when these acquired inclinations are just a political gimmick to acquire status of a person you feel is superior to you with these qualities, you go wrong and attract miseries, fears, anxieties and the related.
Krishna’s Tips
He says Shreyan swadharmo vigunah pardharmat swanushthitat, Swadharm is your natural way made of swabhav. He says it is better even if it appears without any appealing character when compared to other’ dharma. Here swadharm and dharm refer to swabhav, parbhav respectively—your natural inclinations and other’s natural inclinations. What you have acquired through a series of past lives and experiences and what others have acquired through their past lives and experiences are two different roadmaps. Like your natural inclination takes you to Jaipur from Delhi and other’s from Delhi to Mumbai. Their destinations make different routes. And when a Jaipur-bound person switches to Mumbai road, he would never reach his destination and would only waste time on the way to Mumbai. He shall be facing fears, anxieties and confusion all through as his inclinations shall suggest him all the way that he is only moving away from his natural goal. That is why Krishna says swadharme nidhnam shreyah—death is better if your inclinations take you their. Because even this shall take you further on your chosen path. That is why when an engineer steps into a doctor’s shoes, he is bound to get disillusioned as his natural makeup is that of an engineer. So follow your own inner call, without confusing it with trishna’s call—the call of hunger for power. How to distinguish natural call from that of trishna’s ? This exercise is called Vivek—separating the real from the unreal in the perspective of your swabhav. But, if you say how to know your swabhav then it is as good as saying how to eat! Trishna clouds our vision and we act like others we envy—talk like him, behave like him and even try to think like him.
Success Sutra
Krishna shows a clear way ahead from what you are naturally inclined. He says sway sway karmaniabhiratah labhte sansiddhim narah, swabhav niratam karm kurvannapnoti kilbisham. That man who does all his actions natural to him like worship gains all round success. What actions should he be engaged in? Krishna says swabhav niratam, as directed by his swabhav. If a man does actions directed by his swabhav, he doesn’t acquire any negative effects through that (kurvannapnoti kilbisham). Now we need to understand the word abhiratah here. Abhi + ratah. Abhi means doing natural actions with an attitude of worship—which gives you natural satisfaction (not ego satisfaction—this fake satisfaction soon converts into anger and arrogance of having done something which you know you are not qualified for. This gives you a fake sense of satisfaction, like a physically weak person joins a gym and touches and moves the weights higher than his capacity). Natural satisfaction is when you eat the food you like and do things natural to you. In spiritual life too, you should follow the path which is natural to you. If your natural inclination is bhakti, you will excel through this. If your natural inclination is yoga, then you shall excel through it. So Krishna says by sincerely following the path natural to you, you attain full success then what is the need of aping what other’s do? Fear, anger and lust shall overpower you the moment you switch to other’s ways! These three are the doorway to hell, says Krishna in discourse 16. So it is better to follow your natural inclinations than the acquired ones!