Shreyan sva-dharmo vigunah para-dharmat sv-anushthitat. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna: “It is far better to perform one’s natural prescribed duty, though tinged with faults, than to perform another’s prescribed duty, though perfectly.” This is verse 3.35, in the translation by Swami Mukundananda.
As the Country, So the Dress
Jaisa des vaisa bhes. As the country, so the dress. The Rekhta dictionary explains it in Hindi as adopting the dress and the way of life of the place where one lives.
People’s Courts
A Lok Adalat, a people’s court, settles disputes by compromise. Under the Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987, it arrives “at a compromise or settlement between the parties.” Its award “shall be deemed to be a decree of a Civil Court,” and “no appeal shall lie to any Court against the award.”
Since 2015 National Lok Adalats have been held across India on single days, each disposing of a large number of pending cases.
Unless Custom Permits
Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 forbids marriage within the prohibited degrees of relationship and between sapindas, close relatives. Both rules apply “unless the custom or usage governing each of them permits of a marriage between the two.”
Section 3 defines custom as a rule observed “continuously and uniformly” for a long time that “has obtained the force of law among Hindus in any local area, tribe, community, group or family.”
On Compassionate Grounds
When a government employee in India dies in service, a dependent can be appointed to a government job on compassionate grounds. In 2021 the Supreme Court held that “compassionate appointment is not a vested right.”
In December 2025 the court said that such appointments, “made on purely humanitarian grounds, have to be viewed as exceptions to the general rules of appointment.” It called them “a concession and not a right.”
Krishna Takes Up Arms
Before the Kurukshetra war, Krishna offers Duryodhana and Arjuna a choice. One side may have his army. The other may have Krishna himself, “resolved not to fight on the field, and laying down my arms.” Arjuna chooses Krishna.
In the battle, Bhishma presses the Pandavas hard. In the Ganguli translation, Krishna jumps down from Arjuna’s chariot and rushes at Bhishma, whirling his discus. Arjuna stops him “with difficulty at the tenth step.”
In the critical edition of the text, Krishna’s weapon in this scene is a chariot wheel.
Morality Is Subtle
In the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata, Draupadi asks the assembly whether Yudhishthira could stake her after he had already lost himself. Bhishma replies. “O blessed one, morality is subtle,” he says, in the Ganguli translation. “I therefore am unable to duly decide this point that thou hast put.”
He sets out the arguments on each side. Then he says it again: “Therefore, I can not decide this point.”
In Times of Distress
Apaddharma is the law for times of distress. A section of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata is devoted to it. In one of its stories, the sage Vishvamitra takes a haunch of dog’s meat from a Chandala, an outcaste. The Chandala objects: “He who would regard dog’s meat as clean food, I think, would in matters of food abstain from nothing!”
Vishvamitra answers: “When one’s life, however, is in danger there is no sin in accepting such a present or eating such food.”
Power to Relax
Rule 6 of the Posts and Telegraphs (Linemen/Sub-Inspectors/Line Inspectors) Recruitment Rules of 1969 is titled “Power to relax.” It reads: “Where the Central Government is of opinion that it is necessary or expedient so to do, it may, by order, for reasons to be recorded in writing, relax any of the provisions of these rules with respect to any class or category of persons/post.”
The same clause appears, almost word for word, in rules of 2019 for the National Financial Reporting Authority.
Complete Justice
Article 142 of the Constitution of India gives the Supreme Court a power of its own. The court “may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it.” Such an order “shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India.”