'This book has done the rare thing of successfully invoking the Mahabharata to help address the questions that one faces in one's life. Unlike many attempts to make the Mahabharata “relevant” to modern life, this one takes the text seriously as a historical document and does not gloss over the explicit uncertainties and uncomfortable ambiguities that the text conveys. It is written in the expository memoir style that Gurcharan Das used so effectively in India Unbound. The style personalizes the questions and the quest for answers. It makes the work come alive and holds one's interest throughout. The added service that the author provides is to show how the authors of the Mahabharata engaged the same sorts of central ethical issues (with sometimes remarkably similar responses) as Western thinkers both ancient and modern.

This book is a work of great insight. The Sanskritist, the philosopher, and the intelligent lay reader will all benefit from spending time with this work. There are few works on classical Indian thought for which this is true. Das is to be congratulated for so effectively speaking to such diverse audiences.'

- Richard W. Lariviere, Prof. of Sanskrit and Provost and Vice Chancellor, University of Kansas