In plain words
Icchā may also be called svecchā. Svecchā, parecchā, ayecchā.
The Dharma of the Ātma is svadharma
As for svecchā, the students of today all think svecchā is talking as they like, going about as they like and behaving as they like. That is not the inner meaning of svecchā. Svā, icchā: svecchā. The will of the Ātma alone is true svecchā. We must follow the will of the Ātma. This very principle of the Ātma is the basis of the word ‘I’. But people use this ‘I’ in two ways in this world. It is on this account that the Gītā too speaks of paradharma and svadharma. People take svadharma to mean kṣatriya dharma, brāhmin dharma, vaiśya dharma, things belonging to such races, creeds and castes. That is not svadharma. ‘Sva’ means the Ātma. The Dharma of the Ātma alone is svadharma. Paradharma means the dharma of the body. So the ‘I’ is of two kinds. One is the single letter ‘I’. The second is ‘Eye’, three letters. ‘Eye’ is the body. The single-letter ‘I’ is the Ātma. Without the body we cannot know the Ātma. Without the Ātma the body cannot exist. So the oneness of the three, the body, the Ātma and the principle of the jīva, they called the tripuṭi, the trikūṭa. In this way Vedānta has gone on showing a sacred path in short, simple words. “Svecchā means this: having willed it yourself and decided, ‘I am doing this task,’ you do those tasks; and whatever result comes of them, happiness or sorrow, you do not fret over it in the least: this I myself must undergo. For it was I who wanted it, chose it and acted. I did it of my own liking, this work. Let sorrow come of what I did by my own liking, or let joy come, I must go through it. I must not draw back from it in the least”: it is what is done with that conviction. Next, parecchā. That is, we take part in a task through the urging and the pressure of others. This is not done with svecchā. Through the prompting of others, through the pressure of others, you have done some karma. But even then you must not fret in the least, ‘This is not something I did of my own liking!’