The sight of the Lord's form is rare even for the gods (11.52), and none of the four great means, Veda study, austerity, charity or sacrifice, can claim it as a price (11.53).
The one who is content in the self has no duty left to gain anything and nothing to lose by stopping (3.17-18), yet is told to act well and without clinging (3.19).
The twenty verses give different reasons for not grieving, for different listeners, and they agree in outcome. One is the lasting self (2.16–25), one is the unavoidable cycle (2.26–28), and one is the self in every being (2.29–30).
Arjuna's collapse comes in an order. The body gives way first (1.29-30), then his sense of what victory is worth (1.31-35), then his reasons (1.36-44), and at last the reasons turn on him (1.45-47).
The first knowing is a sight of the Lord's glory that turns the devotee (10.7-8); the last is the wisdom of discernment that carries him to the Lord, and the Lord gives it (10.10-11). So the movement is one path that deepens, not a circle.
These verses are spoken inside a vision, to one person, at the edge of a war; the Lord takes away Arjuna's claim to be the author of the outcome and his fear, not his action (11.32-34).
The eight closing verses of chapter 12 draw one person: the centre is mind and intellect offered to the Lord (12.14), and the marks are what that centre looks like in dealing with beings, feelings, events and work (12.13-19).
The promise rests on one whole turning, not on the past: a person of very bad conduct who worships with undivided devotion is to be regarded as righteous, because he has resolved rightly (9.30).
Arjuna asks who knows yoga best. The Lord answers in terms of being joined to Him, not of knowing: the one who fixes the mind on Him, stays steady and has supreme faith is the most united (12.2).
The eight verses describe freedom through action as one ripening: the doer is cleared of grip, ego and craving, the mind grows serene, devotion brings knowledge of the Lord, and the freed person keeps acting (18.49–56).