We do not experience the world, but instead must experience our experience of the world. By such a experience we gain the leverage to truly change the world. The gods cannot change you, but they can give you advice so that you can change you. In this way, you become the agent of your own experience, as the power of self-reflection is yours alone. Yoking the world in this way, one legitimizes one's humanity as self-reflection is the defining characteristic that makes us human.

Bhisma emobdies the mysterium tremendum-a concept pertaining to the fear of the unknown that causes man to take up religious practices in an effort to appease it-because he can reflect on his own disparity and disensures the continuity of his lineage. Some people paint curtains, as Goodenough posited, to separate and protect themselves from the uncontrolable, helpless nature of man that presents itself in the tremendum. Bhisma, however, does no such thing, but instead completely engages his dharma and humanity by self-reflecting, which severs himself from himself. By this act, by breaking his karmic bonds, by stepping out of character, Bhisma gained great power and leverage over others to the point where he died and was reborn with a different identity into the character known as Bhisma, the terrible. Just as the tremendum is the source of terror for man, so has Bhisma come to embody that virtuosity. By overindulging in the capacity of self-reflection, by cutting off his own love to make way for his father's lust, Bhisma delusionally disregards the impact this has on others and their thoughts, such as his disinheritance of the kingdom without an heir. This makes him godly in his embodiment of the tremendum, but also very human in his means for getting there. Perhaps this can be explained by Bhisma's origin, as as a former celestial and son of Ganga.

Karna, on the other hand, is an exemplar of the impermeable boundary of the human capacity to self-reflect. His mother Kunti appeals to him; the god Krsna appeals to him; but he cannot break the boundary he has formed with the Kurus because they adopted him and made him who he is. He legitimized his doing so by self-reflection, because he is the only one who can get inside himself. The more he cultivated his consciousness, the more deeply he had to commit to something greater than himself (Kuru cause) in order to feel legitimized, to engage his dharma and consequently to follow his principled reality.