In this second and final volume, The Yoke, Palmira continues on the eighth day of her story, taking it to its conclusion on her twentieth day.
The antagonism between the princes leads to a battle in which Arjuna will inevitably have to face Karna. In the ancient epic, just before battle begins, Arjuna is reluctant to fight, and the action is temporarily suspended to deliver the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred text involving a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna.
In this retelling there occurs instead at this point a dialogue in which there is an attempt to persuade Arjuna that both free will and the distinction between mind and brain are illusions. During the battle, and in the aftermath, the mysteries begin to unravel.
ISBNs: Paperback 978-1-911412-27-4 pp754 Kindle 978-1-911412-32-8 iBook 978-1-911412-31-1
From the Preface to Volume Two:
In this volume, after a brief reintroduction, Palmira continues with her story at chapter 51.
At the point before the battle when Palmira suspends the action, the end of chapter 64, she then pursues her own preoccupations, in chapters 65 and 66. I should therefore advise readers that at this juncture some of Palmira’s characters engage in a discussion of their views on the mind, the brain, free will, and so on. Readers who think these dialogues may hold little interest for them can skim or skip these two chapters without any great loss. Readers may I hope be usefully guided in this respect by a foretaste in chapter 62. I wish some of the books I was required to read in my youth had issued such helpful guidance.
Then in chapter 81 Palmira again in effect suspends the action to return to one of these topics. Here she humours one of her characters in rather excessive detail, and even those readers who tolerated her earlier indulgences may prefer to skip the bulk of this chapter, again without loss, and re-engage at the point where Karna enters, bringing us back to reality…