Nishkama karma - Uchiha Itachi, an instance

Nishkāma karma is an idea that has fascinated me of late. The idea that disconnects one from the temptation of leaning towards a rewarding path when confronted with a righteous one (Dharma). The substance of great epics; the Mahabharata,  the Ramayana; is an exposition of this idea while juxtaposing the eventuality of 'a convenient path' and 'the righteous one'. 

Over the years, there are two characters Uchiha Itachi from Naruto, and Severus Snape from Harry Potter that have fascinated me. So, in the aforementioned context, this is a sincere tribute to them. 
Uchiha Itachi is a pariah for having single-handedly wiped out his entire clan on a single night, while Severus Snape, under the cloak of furtiveness, seamlessly blended with the dark side.

Uchiha Itachi, as potrayed in Naruto, is a seemingly stolid spy who grasped the crux of nationhood even as a juvenile. He stayed unperturbed to the primordial loyalties that his clansmen yielded to when confronted with an unfavorable stigma in the village, who eventually planned for a gory coup to overthrow the village. When in quandary over the choice of siding with his kinsmen or the village, Itachi, a double agent, chose the latter, and executed a savagery against his own clan. Hence, he stayed an outcast in death and beyond. One might not have commemorated him had he chosen the former option, but certainly not abominated.

One would have to be stony-hearted to effectuate a brutality of this sort, and more so, to stand its test of time. Stoic, he stayed there after, still staying loyal to the village whilst moving along and spying on fellow outcasts. Unless one is able to disconnect oneself from all possible outcomes, favorable or unfavorable, can one choose a path as such. Itachi, is for me, is an inspiration, for he, lauded as a Uchiha genius with ability to affect events in his favor, sacrificed himself selflessly for the 'righteous path'. Even upon his revival from death, only his actions, which went unnoticed, changed the course of the war against the dark side where he sacrificed himself again.

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