The Bhagavad Gita: dharma and atman

   Chapter three addresses Arjuna's question.  Two paths for two types of people, philosophical speculation and devotional service were already mentioned in chapter two.  Chapter three says that each is inadequate without the other, that it is better that duties be performed with detachment from the results of performing them, a sort of paradox indeed.  It says that the philosophically detached are not exercising control over their bodies sufficient to maintain them.  It also says that the performance of duties without philosophical speculation can lead to attachment to the fruits of those activities, which leads to delusion.

   The idea then is that it is important to perform devotional duties with detachment, not for money or for things or sense gratification, but because it is the role in life, for a sort of common good, or for the "Lord."  Killing for money is wrong, killing for any personal gain is wrong.  The book suggests it can be necessary to kill to uphold some cosmic ideal such as what we call "justice."  I must say the circumstances on that battlefield do not appear to me make a good argument for killing.  It seems there are other means of resolving those differences that have not been properly explored first.