Today some brahmacharis raised some questions to Swami Kaivalyananda. One was, ‘isn’t it true that some works are more difficult to perform as karma yoga than others, like a war?’
Swami said that for a karma yogi, he performs his svadharma. In the Gita, it is said, ‘para dharmamo bhayavaha,’ the dharma of another brings fear.’ So, if this wrong dharma is accepted, it will create tension within.

If it is the person’s svadharma to fight in a war, which the questioner said is difficult to perform as Yoga, he must perform as Karma Yoga. For Arjuna, fighting wasn’t the actual problem. Arjuna had defeated the devas and asuras in battle. Instead, it was the internal matters that caused Arjuna difficulty.

Then, Swami pointed out some differences in the karma yoga of Shankara and today.
One is that, in that time, karma yoga was ordained for a householder.

Second, is that that was also dependant on the system of classes and life-stages.

Today, it isn’t possible to determine our svadharma from the scriptures, because the karmas of that time don’t exist today. Instead, we can only imbibe the internal values from the scriptures, not the external practices.
1 November, 2006
Piyush, USA