Religious experience as the realization of duty

The vocabulary of religious experience illustrates the the sense of obligation involved. The word "religion" itself carries the meaning of "bound", bound in conscientious and dutiful devotion. Kant described the sense of reverence which arises at moral law. The term yoga implies a "yoke". All religions have within them particular systems of discipline or duty whose goal is either union (in the sense of absorption) with the transcendent or perfect communion between the self and the transcendent. Particularly relevant is the experience of Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, who is told that inaction is not an option but that the path of salvation is action in accord with duty as regards the roots of the activity rather than its fruits. Similarly, the dharma is the obligatory path for the devotee in Hindu and Buddhist traditions; and in Confucianism there is action in accord with the structured system of human relations, li.