Jai Maa. Today I was reading the Two Natures chapter from Essays on the Gita and there Sri Aurobindo explains that the desire in consonance with dharma does not lead to any bondage, while there he also mentions that desire born of Rajogun leads to bondage and misery. 📖✒️😊🙏🏻🌻[…]

I have the following questions related to this concept:

1. How to distinguish between these two types of desires?

2. How to know one’s Swabhava?

3. How to know whether my actions are in consonance with the Swabhava or not?

[The Two Natures: https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/19/the-two-natures]

He has already answered this, as you have correctly indicated, through the svabhava. Svabhava is the Divine Impulsion in creation that generates karma. It is the swabhava of the kshatriya to fight for truth and justice and conquer kingdoms, but govern them in a fair way. It is the svabhava of the Vaishya to generate wealth, opulence and luxury and so on and so forth. As long as one is acting under the impulsion of the svabhava, say, collecting beautiful things as expressions of beauty (Vaishya) or engaging in righteous battles (for a kshatriya), it is a desire consistent with his dharma. 

To know the svabhava, one has to get rid of all artificial conditioning that pushes everyone towards money, fame, satisfying ambition and fear and lust and look carefully within for what comes most naturally to us, our purpose without which our life is meaningless, the deepest reason and motive hidden behind our outer strivings, our innate temperament, tastes and tendencies.

Affectionately,

Alok Da