Therefore Bhagavad-gītā should be taken up in a spirit of devotion.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Bhagavad-gītā takes the form of a dialogue between Arjuna, a noble prince in spiritual need, and Kṛṣṇa. It is the story of Arjuna’s self-discovery as a soul, and therefore our self-discovery as souls as well. In other words, it is an auto-biography of the soul. It’s the story of a soul realising that it is a soul.
To understand that one is a soul is necessarily a self-discovery. No one can express it to us, no book can explain it to us. Paradoxically, insight into the soul can only be received through the soul. It can only heard through the ‘language’ of the soul, can only be experienced through the ‘senses’ of the soul.
Knowledge of the soul is not compatible with the ways of ‘knowing’ proposed by the information society we live in. The ideal of communication for our time is something universal, uniform and changeable, perfectly diffusible, massively transportable: in short: impersonal.
Knowledge of the soul must be soul-full, it must connect with what is already soul. The soul speaks the language of the soul. It comes from the heart and is destined for the heart. It derives from, recognises and enhances the spiritual uniqueness of every living being.
It passes from soul to soul, from heart to heart, through the emotional, affectionate, ardent, loving relation we have to other souls. Any such relation, born out of love, carrying love, and enhancing love, is called devotional.
The idea of devotion condenses spirituality and love. It is love through spirit, spirit through love, spiritual love, loving spirituality. It is what connects to other souls, preserving both the uniqueness of our soul and the universal loving attraction of the experience of other souls.
A devotee is one who communicates through love. It is someone who is lovingly attracted, lovingly engaged, lovingly moved, lovingly guided.
If I am devoted to you, I am moved to belong you out of love, to act toward you out of love, to serve you out of love. What is most precious to me comes to me out of love. The greatest gift I can give, I can only give through love. The truth of the universe, the beauty of this world, the rightness of what is right, the goodness of what is good flows to us and beyond us, through love.
Any meaning I receive flows to me through the loving relationship of our souls in devotion. Devotion is the connecting energy between souls. Sometimes it is weak, sometimes it is strong, but it is the only thing that is truly eternal in the world.
If Arjuna follows a path of the self-discovery in Bhagavad-gītā, it is not because Kṛṣṇa instructs like a disciplining schoolteacher. Kṛṣṇa teaches Arjuna gently about devotion through devotion. Indeed, learning is only possible in a mode of devotion, because only in that way can knowledge pass into the heart. Heart-knowledge.
Learning happens and Arjuna deepens his realisation over the course of Bhagavad-gītā because he has love for Kṛṣṇa and because Kṛṣṇa has love for him. There is a relation between them, a spiritual connection, a devotion between them that lets the message pass. Their devotional relation, is like a spiritual infrastructure, like an internet of souls, connecting all the souls of the universe.
But this devotion is not one-sided veneration. If it were, then nothing would pass but noise, stale information information, cold facts. It is because Kṛṣṇa loves Arjuna like Arjuna loves him, it is because their love is reciprocal, that there is any meaning at all.
Arjuna is not a disciple; he is a devotee. A disciple obeys what the master says. A devotee feels what he feels, and wants what he wants. Devotional service does not happen when there is a rule, a requirement or a request. It happens when the heart of the one is mirrored by the heart of the other.
The devotee says: I am most myself when I am giving myself to you. The more we give of ourselves, the more we find ourselves. Love is a gift and love is a giving. Devotion begins where the difference between giving and the gift disappears.