There is nothing more wonderful and righteous than to do your duty.

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 31

 

sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya 

na vikampitum arhasi 

dharmyāddhi yuddhāc-chreyo 

‘nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate

 

Looking to do your own duty, you should not tremble; there is no greater  

good for the Kshatriya than righteous battle.

 

Krishna again reminds Arjuna of his duty as a Kshatriya, as a soldier. He says, “There is no greater thing for a soldier to do, than to fight. You should not divert yourself from your aim. Knowing now that the soul is immortal and that the body is separate from the soul, why do you lament? You should go and fight! Don’t just stand there and think! Don’t continue to analyse the problem from many different points of view. You are from the warrior caste, so do your duty! This is the natural duty of a Kshatriya – to not run away from a battle. If ‘the Kshatriya’ starts running away from the battle, all is finished! Then all that you have worried about will happen. It will not happen because you are fighting, but because you are running away from fighting.”

 

In Chapter 1, Arjuna says to Lord Krishna that society will be destroyed and so on, and so on, and so on, if there is a war. Here Krishna says, “Hey listen! Society will not get destroyed because of this war. It will get destroyed if you run away, if you don’t  

do your duty as a warrior.” Imagine you are at the doctor’s and the doctor puts you on the operating table. He has already put you to sleep, then he cuts you open and in the middle of the operation he says, “Oh, no, I can’t look at it! I am running away.” You can’t run away from doing your dharma, your duty. God has given each person their dharma to do in life. You have to do your duty! My duty is to sit here and talk to you, so I am sitting here and I am talking to you. Your duty is to listen, so you are listening. Your duty in the outside world is to do what God has given you to do as your daily duty in life. You have to learn to accept it. That’s why Krishna says, “You have to accept your duty as a Kshatriya. There is nothing more wonderful and righteous than to do your duty.”

Bhagavad Gita