The central concern of the dialogue is how genuine liberation can arise not from fleeing the world, but from engaging in it through rightly performed duty. Krishna presents to Arjuna the vision that one’s prescribed duty, or dharma, is not an obstacle to spiritual freedom but its very means, provided it is carried out without selfish attachment to the results. This is the essence of nishkama karma, action in which the craving for personal gain is relinquished. In such action, the battlefield of life becomes a field of spiritual practice rather than a distraction from it.

Krishna therefore teaches that the key lies in performing one’s svadharma while renouncing the fruits of action and maintaining inner equanimity in success and failure, pleasure and pain. When actions are offered to the Divine, with devotion and without ego, the doer begins to see himself or herself as an instrument rather than as the ultimate agent. This orientation purifies the mind and gradually dissolves the sense of separateness that binds one to suffering. Liberation, or moksha, then emerges as the realization of the true Self, attained in the midst of action rather than in its abandonment.

This teaching is articulated as karma yoga, the yoga of selfless action, which reconciles spiritual aspiration with worldly responsibility. Rather than demanding physical withdrawal from life, the Gita presents a subtler renunciation: the inner letting go of possessiveness and desire for personal reward. True renunciation thus becomes a matter of attitude, not geography. By integrating devotion to the Divine, understanding of the nature of reality, and disciplined performance of duty, the dialogue shows that the apparent conflict between spiritual life and worldly obligation can be resolved.

In this way, the text affirms that fulfilling one’s duty in a spirit of selflessness and devotion is a fully valid path to liberation, standing alongside the paths of knowledge and devotion. The practitioner is called to act according to nature and position, yet to do so free from egoistic motives. When every deed is consecrated to the Divine and carried out with steady mind and open heart, ordinary life is transformed into a vehicle of spiritual realization. Duty, once seen as a burden, becomes the very doorway to freedom.