A philosophical dialogue embedded in the Indian epic Mahabharata, in which the god Krishna instructs the warrior Arjuna on duty, action, and the nature of the self — the foundational text of Hindu ethical and spiritual thought and one of the most widely read philosophical works in human history.
On the eve of a battle that will destroy his family, a warrior puts down his bow and asks whether it can ever be right to fight. Krishna’s reply — act, do your duty, but surrender all claim on the results — became the philosophical foundation of a civilization, and has been argued over for two thousand years.