3.35 Your own work, done badly Krishna speaks
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः
śhreyān swa-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣhṭhitāt
swa-dharme nidhanaṁ śhreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ
Better your own work done imperfectly than another's done well. Better to die in your own work than to live in someone else's.
Explanation
Better your own work done badly.
Than someone else's done well — and better to die in your own than to live in another's.
The most quoted verse in the chapter and the most easily misused. In context it answers Arjuna specifically: he has been proposing to take up a different life because his own has become unbearable.
Going further
Word by word
- śhreyān
- better
- swa-dharmaḥ
- personal duty
- viguṇaḥ
- tinged with faults
- para-dharmāt
- than another’s prescribed duties
- su-anuṣhṭhitāt
- perfectly done
- swa-dharme
- in one’s personal duties
- nidhanam
- death
- śhreyaḥ
- better
- para-dharmaḥ
- duties prescribed for others
- bhaya-āvahaḥ
- fraught with fear
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Better your own work done badly than someone else's done well. Better to die in your own than to live in another's.
The verse is uncompromising and it is the one people find hardest, because it forecloses the fantasy of the better-suited life. It reappears almost word for word at 18.47, which is unusual — the Gita rarely repeats itself, and when it does the repetition is the emphasis.