What makes the Gita’s Teaching Great

The Yoga of the Gita is a spiritual truth applied to the external life and action. Before one enters into the Gita’s teachings, one should first know about:

The giver of the teaching
The recipient of the teaching
The situation in which the teaching was given

The giver of the teaching is Sri Krishna himself, the Avataara – the Divine manifesting in a human form for a specific purpose. The action of an Avatara is always in complete harmony with the truth that he preaches - गीताज्ञानमुपाश्रित्य त्रीन् लोकान् पालयाम्यहम् gītājñānamupāśritya trīn lookān pālayāmyaham.

Sri Krishna was a man of heroic action – कर्मवीर karmavīra, greatest Yogi – महायोगी mahāyogī, greatest householder - महासंसारी mahāsaṁsārī, founder of great kingdom – साम्राज्यसंस्थापक sāmrājyasaṁsthāpaka, a politician of high order - कुशल राजनीतिज्ञ kuśalarājanītijña, and above all, the most adorable वासुदेव vāsudeva , the Supreme - भगवान् bhagavān.

Sri Krishna, the Divine teacher had Arjuna – the 3rd among the Pandavas, as the most befitting disciple to receive the teaching. Arjuna, as his name suggests is the light-filled pure soul – full of sattva, open and straightforward; and very dear to Sri Krishna.

The dialogue between Sri Krishna, the Divine teacher and Arjuna, the human disciple, between these two hero warriors, did not place in the solitude of a forest or in the cave of a mountain, but in the middle of रणभूमि raṇabhūmi - the battlefield.

The situation demands not to abstain from the action but to get fully engaged in the action with the knowledge of right, and in the right way, by following the path of command of the Divine. The upadesha of the shastras has been to be in action, not refraining from action: कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छतं समाः kurvanneveha karmāṇi jijīviṣecchataṁ samāḥ - one must aspire to live a complete life of hundred years full of action (Ishopaniashad 2). But one should know what action or karma is, what inaction or akarma is and what worng action or vikarma is:


कर्मणो ह्यपि बोद्धव्यं बोद्धव्यं च विकर्मणः ।
अकर्मणश्च बोद्धव्यं गहना कर्मणो गतिः ॥
karmaṇo hyapi boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ ca vikarmaṇaḥ,
akarmaṇaśca boddhavyaṁ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ. Gita, 4.17


One also should keep in mind that the adharmic forces must be annihilated for the establishment of Dharma. But before one fights against adharma, one must know what is Dharma and what is not and follow the path of dharma in all possible ways without deviating from it even for a single moment.

Here is beautiful explanation of what is dharma and what is adharma by Sri Aurobindo:

“Dharma is both that which we hold to and that which holds together our inner and outer activities. In its primary sense it means a fundamental law of our nature which secretly conditions all our activities, and in this sense each being, type, species, individual, group has its own dharma. Secondly, there is the divine nature which has to develop and manifest in us, and in this sense dharma is the law of the inner workings by which that grows in our being. Thirdly, there is the law by which we govern our outgoing thought and action and our relations with each other so as to help best both our own growth and that of the human race towards the divine ideal.…Dharma is all that helps us to grow into the divine purity, largeness, light, freedom, power, strength, joy, love, good, unity, beauty, and against it stands its shadow and denial, all that resists its growth and has not undergone its law, all that has not yielded up and does not will to yield up its secret of divine values, but presents a front of perversion and contradiction, of impurity, narrowness, bondage, darkness, weakness, vileness, discord and suffering and division, and the hideous and the crude, all that man has to leave behind in his progress. This is the adharma, not-dharma, which strives with and seeks to overcome the dharma, to draw backward and downward, the reactionary force which makes for evil, ignorance and darkness.”
-Sri Aurobindo (Essays on the Gita, CWSA, Vol. 19, p.172)

The Gita confirms that knowing what dharma is if one puts into practice even a little bit of it he will be saved from the greatest of dangers:
स्वल्पमप्यस्य धर्मस्य त्रायते महतो भयात् svalpamapyasya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt (Gita 2.40).