sannyāsasya mahā-bāho
tattvam icchāmi veditum
tyāgasya ca hṛṣīkeśa
pṛthak keśī-niṣūdana
arjunaḥ uvāca-Arjuna said; sannyāsasya-renunciation; mahā-bāho-O mighty-armed one; tattvam-truth; icchāmi-I wish; veditum-to understand; tyāgasya-of renunciation; ca-also; hṛṣīkeśa-O master of the senses; pṛthak-differently; keśi-nisūdana-O killer of the Keśī demon.
Arjuna said, O mighty-armed one, I wish to understand the purpose of renunciation [tyāga] and of the renounced order of life [sannyāsa], O killer of the Keśī demon, Hṛṣīkeśa.
Actually the Bhagavad-gītā is finished in seventeen chapters. The Eighteenth Chapter is a supplementary summarization of the topics discussed before. In every chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa stresses that devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life. This same point is summarized in the Eighteenth Chapter as the most confidential path of knowledge. In the first six chapters, stress was given to devotional service: yoginām api sarveṣām... "Of all yogīs or transcendentalists, one who always thinks of Me within himself is best." In the next six chapters, pure devotional service and its nature and activity were discussed. In the third six chapters, knowledge, renunciation, the activities of material nature and transcendental nature, and devotional service were described. It was concluded that all acts should be performed in conjunction with the Supreme Lord, summarized by the words om tat sat, which indicate Viṣṇu, the Supreme Person. In the third part of Bhagavad-gītā, devotional service was established by the example of past ācāryas and the Brahma-sūtra, the Vedānta-sūtra, which cites that devotional service is the ultimate purpose of life and nothing else. Certain impersonalists consider themselves monopolizers of the knowledge of Vedānta-sūtra, but actually the Vedānta-sūtra is meant for understanding devotional service, for the Lord Himself is the composer of the Vedānta-sūtra, and He is its knower. That is described in the Fifteenth Chapter. In every scripture, every Veda, devotional service is the objective. That is explained in Bhagavad-gītā.