As the Bhagavad Gita is a dharma-saṁvāda and Yudhishthira is known as Dharmaraja, why did Krishna speak the Gita to Arjuna rather than to Yudhishthira?

Krishna did impart profound spiritual wisdom to Yudhishthira, but he did so after the war. When Yudhishthira became overwhelmed by grief and moral confusion over the immense destruction caused by the conflict, Krishna personally guided him and also arranged for him to hear Bhishma’s extensive teachings on dharma.

Before the Kurukshetra war, however, it was Arjuna who faced the more acute ethical crisis. He had to fight—and ultimately cause the deaths of—the very people he most revered: Bhishma, his grandfather, and Drona, his teacher. That intensely personal conflict plunged him into deep confusion about his duty. Yudhishthira, although also burdened by the war, did not face that same moral dilemma before the battle. Therefore, Arjuna became the immediate recipient of the Bhagavad Gita.

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02.47 You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.