An overview of the Ghita

After having read the Ghita, what I found to be most interesting was that it is from a culture whose language greatly influences its ideas. This, at first, sounds like a rather obvious statement and there is nothing profound about it. I suppose that is true in a sense, but, being a psychology major as well as a philosophy major, I find this type of thing particularly interesting. The idea of Dharma, for example, is something that we must elaborate on greatly; it isn't simply one's purpose of life, it's so much more. It's who you are, what you do, where you came from, and where you will go. It is an idea that is firmly grounded within the roots and traditions of the culture that gave birth to it. This isn't the only example of this; several different ideas within the Ghita are ones that, without understanding the culture, are and will be lost on the scholars attempting to learn about what the Ghita has to say.

The lessons in the Ghita are ones that set out to include and help. This seems pretty unique in that most other religions require one to relinquish parts of their lives in order to join them. Hinduism almost doesn't seem like a religion in that sense because it is all-inclusive. Whatever you want to do, that's fine by the Ghita, so long as you are fulfilling your Dharma. One aspect that I found particularly interesting in this sense was the idea that Krishna wanted Arjuna to fulfill his Dharma as a Kshatrya, and defeat his enemies. Because it was his Dharma, he would not be punished for it, and he could expect to "move up" in his next life.

I understand that there is a great likelihood that Arjuna was not actually intended to kill his enemies, and that it is a metaphor for defeating the personal demons within us (or something along those lines) that will allow us to reach Moksha, yet at the same time it offers strange grounds for potentially atrocious acts simply because the individuals acting them out can claim that it is their Dharma to do so, and they aren't in fact "killing" anyone, because the self cannot be killed.

Thoughts?