Dharma's Dilemma

Dharma — duty, righteousness, cosmic order — is the central concept of Indian literature. In the Bhagavad Gita, the warrior Arjuna faces his relatives on the battlefield and refuses to fight. Krishna teaches him the principle of action without attachment to outcomes — performing duty regardless of personal desire or consequence.

This teaching echoes ideas later found in Stoic philosophy and the Transcendentalist movement, and it resonates with modern cognitive behavioral therapy. The notion that you control your actions but not their results remains one of the most psychologically sophisticated frameworks ever articulated in literature.