Every man should take up his own ideal and endeavour to accomplish it. That is a surer way of progress than taking up other men’s ideals, which he can never hope to accomplish. For instance, we take a child and at once give him the task of walking twenty miles. Either the little one dies, or one in a thousand crawls the twenty miles, to reach the end exhausted and half-dead. That is like what we generally try to do with the world. All the men and women, in any society, are not of the same mind, capacity, or of the same power to do things; they must have different ideals, and we have no right to sneer at any ideal. Let every one do the best he can for realising his own ideal. Nor is it right that I should be judged by your standard or you by mine. The apple tree should not be judged by the standard of the oak, nor the oak by that of the apple. To judge the apple tree you must take the apple standard, and for the oak, its own standard. (I, 41)
‘Swadharme nidhanam sreyah
Paradharmo bhayavaha’ –
is explained by Sri Krishna in Bhagavat Gita. Swamiji introduces this idea in Karma Yoga. To use the modern technology, when we work in the field to which we are best suited by birth and training our work would be tension free. The reason is that it has become part of the character or Swabhava. One is able to work with great relaxation and satisfaction. As time went on, unfortunately such activities became more and more confined to particular sections (castes) in the society, and became concretised as Kula Dharma. However, it is a fact, that executing Kula Dharma one is able to manifest the divinity (freedom) within, which is what work is meant for.
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