The Bhagavad Gita is a lengthy discussion on the nature of duty toward others and personal obligations, and it is also rich in metaphysical thought. The poem manages to interweave our yearning to know, to act, and to have faith.

A personal god, Krishna, emerges. Krishna's conversation with Arjuna is a call to action. The obligations and duties of life that Arjuna must observe — both in terms of his personal conduct and his duties as a warrior — are not separate from the spiritual background of life and our spiritual purpose in the universe. In this context, action is always valued and inaction is devalued, even condemned.

While spirituality deals with matters that are timeless, our ideals must be in accord with the highest ideals of the age; however, these ideals may vary from age to age. So the yugadharma, the ideals of the particular age, must be kept in view.

Because the modern age is fraught with frustration and quietism, the Gita's call to action makes a special appeal to our time. It is also possible to interpret ideal action in modern times as action that is humanitarian, altruistic, and practical. According to the Gita, such categories are praiseworthy, but a spiritual ideal must lie beneath such actions. Also, actions must be performed in a spirit of detachment, rather than with a concern for the results.

Finally, the message of the Gita is not sectarian or addressed to any school of thought. Rather, it is universal in scope, intended equally for Brahmin or outcaste. “All paths lead to me,” the Gita says. Because it possesses such universality, it finds favor with all classes and schools. In the roughly 2,200 years since the Gita was written, India and the world have gone through various processes of change and stagnation, prosperity and decay. No matter; each age has found something relevant to its time in the Gita. It applies to the moral, social, and spiritual problems that afflict each age.