Indian / Vedic · c. 200 BC
Bhagavad Gita
Vyasa (attrib.)
Act for the work's sake, unattached to applause or result.
The setting
Arjuna, a warrior, freezes on a battlefield between two armies of his own relatives. The entire text is his conversation with Krishna, his charioteer, about whether and how to act when every option is costly.
Paralysis is also a choice
Krishna's first move is to refuse the fantasy of clean hands. Withdrawal is itself an act with consequences. The passage is the sharpest antidote to indecision dressed up as principle.
Karma yoga
The central teaching: you have a right to your action, never to its fruits. Do the work well and release the outcome. This is not indifference — it is the removal of the anxiety that degrades performance and turns work into a bid for approval.
Your own duty, imperfectly
Better your own dharma done badly than another's done well. The instruction is against imitation: the life you can sustain is the one shaped to your actual nature and obligations, not a copied ideal.
Equanimity
The steady person is described as unshaken in gain and loss alike, senses governed, mind collected. It is a portrait of temperament as a trainable skill rather than a lucky trait.
What to take from it
Separate effort from outcome in writing. Judge yourself on the part you controlled.
Lines to keep
- “You have a right to your action, never to its fruits.”
- “Better your own duty imperfectly than another's perfectly.”
- “Withdrawal is also an act with consequences.”
Practice
- · Before your next big effort, write down what would count as doing it well regardless of the result.
- · Review a recent disappointment and separate the part you controlled.