# Svadharma

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{{Short description|Sanskrit term}}
'''Svadharma''' ({{Langx|sa|स्वधर्म}}) is a term (from sva: proper, and dharma: law, duty)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sanskritdictionary.com: Definition of svadharma |url=https://sanskritdictionary.com/svadharma/276801/1 |access-date=28 October 2023 |website=sanskritdictionary.com}}</ref> which, in [Hinduism](/source/Hinduism), designates the duties of an individual, according to his [modes of material nature](/source/Gu%E1%B9%87a) or natural disposition, which he must follow.<ref>[Jean Filliozat](/source/Jean_Filliozat), «Dharma», ''Encyclopædia Universalis'', French: https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/dharma/</ref>

== Bhagavad-Gita ==
The term is used in the [Bhagavad Gita](/source/Bhagavad_Gita):<ref>{{Cite web |last=Universalis |first=Encyclopædia |title=BRAHMANISME |url=https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/brahmanisme/ |access-date=2023-10-28 |website=Encyclopædia Universalis |language=fr-FR}}</ref> ''3:35'' "Better is one's own law of works, swadharma, though in itself faulty than an alien law well-wrought out; death in one's own law of being is better, perilous is it to follow an alien law."<ref>The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Sri Aurobindo, Chapter III Karmayoga, 35</ref> and ''18:47'' "Better is one's own law of works, though in itself faulty, than an alien law well-wrought out. One does not incur sin when one acts in agreement with the law of one's own nature [''[svabhāva](/source/Svabhava)'']."<ref>The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Sri Aurobindo Chapter XVIII Renunciation and Moksha, 47</ref>

According to [Sri Aurobindo](/source/Sri_Aurobindo), "in Nature each of us has a principle and will of our own becoming; each soul is a force of self-consciousness that formulates an idea of the Divine in it and guides by that its action and evolution, its progressive self-finding, its constant varying self-expression, its apparently uncertain but secretly inevitable growth to fullness.  That is our Swabhava, our own real nature; that is our truth of being which is finding now only a constant partial expression in our various becoming in the world.  The law of action determined by this Swabhava is our right law of self-shaping, function, working, our Swadharma."<ref>[Sri Aurobindo](/source/Sri_Aurobindo), Essays on the Gita, Second Series, Part II, Chapter 20, Swabhava and Swadharma, pg. 502,</ref>

== See also ==

* [Dharma](/source/Dharma)
* [Guna](/source/Guna_(disambiguation))
* [Karma](/source/Karma)

== References ==
<references />
Category:Hindu philosophical concepts
Category:Hindu law
Category:Words and phrases with no direct English translation
Category:Natural law
Category:Sanskrit words and phrases

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