Arjuna said: What is that Brahman? What is the spiritual Self (adhyātma)? What is action? And what is declared to be that which presides over material elements and deities?

Arjuna asks for clarification on the terms from 7.29-30. What is brahman (impersonal Absolute), adhyātmam (the inner Self), karma (action in its technical sense), adhi-bhūtam (what presides over elements) and adhi-daivam (what presides over demigods).

These are fundamental categories of Sāṅkhya and Vedic cosmology. Chapter 8 will delve deeper into what happens at the moment of death.