gita
From the short introduction to Gita page by Shri Asaramji Bapu, here are my brief notes:
Attraction to relatives/friends/fellow people is called materialistic, since this is temporary. Only soul is described as eternal. The "the knowledge of God and Truth; perishable nature of the body and immutability of the Soul" is told to be more important.
Krishna says, "That which is born shall die, But the Atman(soul) is neither born nor shall it die. Then what is the reason to be sad? If you do not do your natural duty, do not follow your own dharma(religion), do not fight in a religious war as a Kshatriya(warrior) should do, then dishonour will come to your door which shall be worser than death." Thus, duty of a person is considered very important -- more important than your relationships with other people and other materialistic desires. (Q: But how can duty be called non-materialistic? It comes about only from materialistic and temporary entities. Secondly, why action is necessary at all? I think that action should not be required since it only furthers goals of temporary material life. In fact, making yourself happy is also materialistic, since your happiness dies with your brain which produces the emotions. Then what is soul? Consciousness?)
" The person who performs his duties honestly and with sincere efforts disregarding the fruit of action becomes even minded."
"By constantly surrendering your action with all your heart to my All Knowing Supreme Soul, you fight this battle without any expectations, attachment and agony."
(to be continued)