Bhagavad Gita in four questions

1. How do I comprehend life and death?
Everything emerges from the infinite, exists in the infinite and merges back into the infinite. Hence, life and death are mere bodily functions. If that is too mystical for you to accept, then consider the alternative argument - death comes to all who are born. Once dead, they are unreachable - that is all there is to life and death - so why lament someone's death or rejoice their birth?

2. What is the right action?
Do what you got to do, and dont worry about the fruit of your actions. Once you are totally detached from the fruits of your action, you can renounce your action as well, as action itself will be meaningless. But beware - there is no shortcut, you cannot directly go to inaction, since you will still be tied to sensory desires.

3. Why should I work/act?
One, because it is essential to work and detach yourself from the fruits as a path to reaching total detachment in inaction. Two, sincere intelligent workers set an example for other less philosophical people to follow them. So, by working, you make others productive, since otherwise, they will get into pondering over questions that they cannot answer.

4. The solution (work/action with detachment to its fruits) sounds simple, but seems hard to implement, as the mind is always pulled in different directions. What do I do?
Desire is the biggest hurdle to achieving this. Systematically overcome desire and you will reach the detached state. Find and seek inspiration from a master who is ahead of you in the process. Be moderate in eating, sleeping, working and recreation.Whenever the mind wavers, just bring it gently back.And when it seems impossible, just resort to your faith to tell yourself that it is possible.

For a detailed expostion of Indian philosophy, I would highly recommend the excellent book - A Source Book in Indian Philosophy
- coauthored by Dr Radhakrishnan, former president of India. It covers all the major ancient Indian thought, including the scriptures and the philosophical meaning behind them. While a part of Indian scripture is by necessity ritualistic and mystical, there are powerful universally applicable thoughts that I have distilled in these posts.