Ancient

The Bhagavad Gita

c. 2nd century BCE–2nd century CE

Dialogue on the field of Kurukshetra

Krishna speaks to Arjuna, who does not want to fight the people he loves. The teaching on work without clinging to its fruits has been pulled, ever since, into lives that are not battlefields.

In the canon

You have a right to the work alone, never to its fruits. Let not the fruit of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.Bhagavad Gita

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