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BG 3.35

श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः

śreyān svadharmo viguṇaḥ
paradharmāt svanuṣṭhitāt
svadharme nidhanaṃ śreyaḥ
paradharmo bhayāvahaḥ

SYNONYMS

śreyān: better is | svadharmaḥ: one's own duty | viguṇaḥ: though ill-done | paradharmāt: than the duty of another | svanuṣṭhitāt: well-performed | svadharme: in one's own duty | nidhanaṃ: death | śreyaḥ: better | paradharmaḥ: the duty of another | bhayāvahaḥ: fraught with fear |

TRANSLATION

Better is one’s own duty, though ill-done, than the duty of another well-performed. Better is death in one’s own. duty; the duty of another is fraught with fear.

PURPORT

Therefore Karma Yoga is better than Jñana Yoga. For, it forms one’s own duty, since it is natural to one and easy to perform, and though defective, is free from liability to interruption and fall. Jñana Yoga, on the other hand, though performed well for some time, constitutes the duty of another, as it is difficult to practise for one conjoined with Prakrti. It is therefore liable to interruption. For a person who lives practising Karma Yoga—which is his duty because, he is qualified for it—even death without success in one birth does not matter. For, in the next birth with the help of the experience already gained in the previous birth, it will be possible for him to perform Karma Yoga without any impediments. Jñana Yoga is fraught with fear because of the possibility of errors for anyone who is conjoined to Prakrti. It is another’s duty, on account of it being not easily adoptable by him.