Bhagavad Gītā · भगवद्गीता

Seven hundred verses set in the worst possible moment: an army on each side, and the warrior Arjuna sitting down in his chariot because he has recognised his cousins and teachers in the ranks opposite and cannot do it. Krishna's answer is not comfort but a reframing of action itself — do what is yours to do, released from grasping at its fruit. Its nearest Jewish neighbour is the doctrine of lishmah, acting for its own sake and not for reward — Rabia's bucket and torch on the Sufi bench say it too — and behind that, tikkun, which likewise hands you work you will not see finished. The difference is the setting: the Gītā's duty is to fight a battle it declines to call unjust, and Judaism's is to mend a world it insists was broken.