We normally imagine time as a line that started at some point and stretches indefinitely. This affects even our language, with words such as “timeline”. The pyramids were built, then Alexander came, then Cleopatra met Cesar. The Roman Empire collapsed, there were the dark ages, then the Enlightenment, industrial revolution, and finally everyone had the idea of filling the ocean with plastic bags… 

Imagine you are a trained warrior, and you are about to fight in a great battle. However, as you prepare your weapons, you notice that most of your kinsmen are on the other side: cousins, uncles, dear friends, and even your grandfather. What would you do?

In the great classic, the Bhagavad-Gita, Arjuna comes across a gruesome choice: face his own relatives in battle, risking killing his own kinsman or being killed by them, or neglecting his sacred duty as a Kshatriya, a sacred warrior, and live the rest of his life in shame. For a righteous and honored person like Arjuna, dishonor is worse than death, but how could he live after the death of his relatives?