Better is one’s own Dharma

Shreyanswadharmo vigunah pardharmatswanusthitaat
Swadharme nidhanam shreyah paradharmo bhayawah – Shrimad Bhagvad Gita (3.35)
Meaning : Better is one’s own Dharma, though devoid of merit, than the Dharma, of another well discharged. Better is death in one’s own Dharma,; the Dharma, of another is fraught with fear.

Implied meaning : When Kaliyu began, there was only one Dharma and that was Vedic Sanatan Dharma. It is the scourge of Kaliyug that after the beginning of Kaliyug, opponents of Vedas, opponents of worship of Sagun Upasana (worshipping the God in manifest form), opponents of Sanskrit and opponents of Sattvik Vedic lifestyle, declared themselves to be Dharmasansthapak (establishers of the Dharma) clothed the satanic sects as Dharma, establishing themselves as self-proclaimed Gods. Hence, this Shloka (verse) provides an indication of the damage resulting from conversions that will be caused during Kaliyug.

Today, several people renounce their Sanatan Dharma for incentives and fulfilling self-serving interests and adopt someone else’s Dharma spontaneously. God Krushna providing hints to such people about the damage that could result, says, ‘adopting someone else’s Dharma can be catastrophic.”

Even if one’s own Dharma is abominable, it must not be given up, although an incontrovertible truth that remains is that there is no other Dharma superior to Vedic Sanatan Dharma; hence even if one has to give up one’s life for the protection of Dharma, even that begets welfare.

As sects of Kaliyug are illusory, adopting them immediately results in a financial windfall and the primary objective of a being of Kaliyug is to live a life of opulence; hence selfish people immediately get trapped in the illusory web of such satanic sects; however after some time, their successive generations have to endure intense problems and the family too gets destroyed easily. Hence, Sanatan Dharmis (followers of Sanatan Dharma) must never renounce their individual Dharma. Tanuja Thakur