Said Krishna to Arjuna, “It is better to fail at your own dharma than to succeed at the dharma of someone else.” Better to fail at your own dharma? Better to fail at the pursuit of one’s own puny inner genius than to succeed in any other, however exalted? Better to find your own inner fingerprint, no matter what the outcome? Really that important? Krishna teaches Arjuna that our gifts are sva dharma—literally, “one’s own dharma.” Yoga sages later went on to teach that sva dharma, your own dharma, is equivalent to sva bhava, your own being. These gifts are somehow close to the very center of
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