Text 31

स्वधर्ममपि चावेक्ष्य न विकम्पितुमर्हसि ।
धर्म्याद्धि युद्धाच्छ्रेयोऽन्यत्क्षत्रियस्य न विद्यते ॥३१॥

sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya
na vikampitum arhasi
dharmyād dhi yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat
kṣatriyasya na vidyate

Translation:

Considering your specific duty as a kshatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles; and so there is no need for hesitation.

Purport:

Out of the four orders of social administration, the second order, for the matter of good administration, is called kshatriya. Kshat means hurt. One who gives protection from harm is called kshatriya (trayate -- to give protection). The kshatriyas are trained for killing in the forest. A kshatriya would go into the forest and challenge a tiger face to face and fight with the tiger with his sword. When the tiger was killed, it would be offered the royal order of cremation. This system has been followed even up to the present day by the kshatriya kings of Jaipur state. The kshatriyas are specially trained for challenging and killing because religious violence is sometimes a necessary factor. Therefore, kshatriyas are never meant for accepting directly the order of sannyasa, or renunciation. Nonviolence in politics may be a diplomacy, but it is never a factor or principle. In the religious law books it is stated:

ahaveshu mitho 'nyonyam

jighamsanto mahi-kshitah

yuddhamanah param saktya

svargam yanty aparan-mukhah

yajneshu pasavo brahman

hanyante satatam dvijaih

samskritah kila mantrais ca

te 'pi svargam avapnuvan

"In the battlefield, a king or kshatriya, while fighting another king envious of him, is eligible for achieving heavenly planets after death, as the brahmanas also attain the heavenly planets by sacrificing animals in the sacrificial fire." Therefore, killing on the battlefield on religious principles and killing animals in the sacrificial fire are not at all considered to be acts of violence, because everyone is benefited by the religious principles involved. The animal sacrificed gets a human life immediately without undergoing the gradual evolutionary process from one form to another, and the kshatriyas killed on the battlefield also attain the heavenly planets as do the brahmanas who attain them by offering sacrifice.

There are two kinds of sva-dharmas, specific duties. As long as one is not liberated, one has to perform the duties of his particular body in accordance with religious principles in order to achieve liberation. When one is liberated, one's sva-dharma -- specific duty -- becomes spiritual and is not in the material bodily concept. In the bodily conception of life there are specific duties for the brahmanas and kshatriyas respectively, and such duties are unavoidable. Sva-dharma is ordained by the Lord, and this will be clarified in the Fourth Chapter. On the bodily plane sva-dharma is called varnasrama-dharma, or man's steppingstone for spiritual understanding. Human civilization begins from the stage of varnasrama-dharma, or specific duties in terms of the specific modes of nature of the body obtained. Discharging one's specific duty in any field of action in accordance with the orders of higher authorities serves to elevate one to a higher status of life.