The words
Key ideas, explained plainly
Dharma, karma, the three guṇas. A handful of Sanskrit terms carry most of the Gita’s argument, and a reader who is unsure of them is locked out of whole chapters. Each one is defined here in ordinary language.
Dharma
10 verseswhat it is right for you in particular to do
Karma
21 versesaction, and the way action leaves a residue
Ātman
19 versesthe self that is not the body or the personality
Brahman
13 versesthe one reality underneath everything
Guṇa
24 versesthe three strands everything in nature is woven from
Yoga
17 versesbeing joined, and the practice of getting there
Bhakti
16 verseslove and devotion, treated as a path in its own right
Jñāna
16 versesknowledge, in the sense of seeing rather than collecting
Mokṣa
16 versesrelease, and what is actually being released from
Māyā
5 versesthe appearance that makes the real hard to see
Prakṛti and Puruṣa
18 versesnature, and the one who watches it
Yajña
19 versesoffering, and how the Gita widened the word
Niṣkāma Karma
16 verseswork done without craving what it will return
Sva-dharma
8 versesyour own work, as against an imitation of somebody else's