The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 14.5. Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday, November 9, 2021. 7:00. AM.

The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 14.5. Swami Krishnananda.

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita

Chapter -14.The Coming of God as an Incarnation -5.

(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti)

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Each one of us is a witness to our own kind of living in the world. We stand witness to our own selves, and there is no need for any other witness for us. What kind of life are we living in the world? To what extent are we clamouring for satisfaction in money, in land, in property, in social associations, in positions, in recognitions, in the pampering of our egos? Even a word of thanks would, balloon-like, swell our egos.

Do we not believe that we are materialists? To the extent we cannot recognise that any value is there in us at all, we are bereft of any value. Somebody else is the value; we are not the value. That somebody else is our sustenance. That belief, honestly accepted, is that belief that all values are in things other than in one’s own self, that the object is the value, and the subject is not the value. The subject is not only conditioned by the objects, it seems to be hanging on the object like a satellite. This is undivinity parading in all glory on earth, and then God comes with His rod in hand. This is because such a position is tolerated to some extent. Even a very bad man can exist in this world. To some extent such persons are tolerated by the law of nature. Utter untruth also is tolerated by nature for some time. Intense wickedness is sometimes seen in this world. It appears to be tolerated, but it cannot be tolerated beyond a certain limit. Our body tolerates irregularities of diet to some extent. Fatigue, exhaustion, sleeplessness, wrong diet and other things are to some extent tolerated by our body, but they are unhealthy processes which the body will resent. To some extent the body tolerates it, but it will not tolerate it beyond a certain limit. Then the body takes the whole matter in its hands, and we are in a terrific condition of ill health. Anything may manifest.

Now, God’s Incarnation is supposed to be a remedying principle that is unleashed by the powers that be for the maintenance of the purposive action of the cosmos. 

The Bhagavadgita verse is sambhavami yuge yuge (BG 4.8): “I incarnate myself at every yuga.” 

According to the cyclic theory of creation, accepted wholly in India and to some extent in certain philosophical circles in the West also, nature moves in cycles, yugas, which are periods or aeons of the natural processes. There is a rising of culture and a coming down of culture, which has been historically studied by certain stalwarts in this field such as Arnold Toynbee. His volumes are a very interesting philosophic, we may even say spiritual, study of the cyclic processes in human history and destiny. Nations rise and nations fall; cultures rise and cultures fall. Why does this happen? The reason is given.

We have the yugas mentioned in ancient traditions. The yugas are called by the names Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali. The Krita Yuga is said to be the golden age, the millennium when God rules the world – Christ ruling the whole of mankind, as it were, where government is not possible and existent. It is a total perfection of divine action, everywhere everyone knowing what one’s duty is, with angels ruling and immortal principles operating in the mortal panorama, where external instructions, rules, regulations – whether political, social or ethical – were not felt necessary. Everyone knew what was his duty, her duty; therefore, no instruction was necessary. Nobody said that you should do this or you should not do that. There were no regulations of any kind. That is the golden age of mankind, believed to be Krita Yuga. Then there was a diminution of this kind of life when the vociferous tendencies of division began to operate in a more pronounced manner, and people lost that consciousness of duty in some percentage, and a ruler was felt as a necessity – a king, a monarch, an administration, a government. 

In Treta Yuga, kings came into force. It became still worse in Dvapara Yuga when there was not merely an administration, but even the necessity of war. And in Kali Yuga it is only war, nothing else. Everywhere there is skirmish, scratching, and intense anxiety of everyone in respect of everyone else; that is Kali Yuga. We are said to be in this condition, which has not yet become intense. It is said to be just on its first foot. The Indian tradition tells us that several millions of years will be the extent of Kali yoga. Only some five and a half thousand years have passed, so we have not yet become too bad. Some good people still exist in this world. Dharma is not completely destroyed, and there are a few people at least in this world who know that God exists, and they believe it honestly. They have not yet gone to the extent of total denial, but it is said that a total denial will take place one day, and there will be a cataclysm, a catastrophe. The end of the world will be the beginning of the original state of affairs. The wheel will make a complete turn, and when things go to the uttermost extreme, the other extreme will come up into action, the golden age will come again, and so on, is the story.

So the Lord says, “In every yuga I incarnate myself: in Krita Yuga, in Treta Yuga, in Dvapara Yuga, in Kali Yuga.” Vishnu’s Incarnations are said to be spread out in all these aeons. Also, philosophically, it should mean that God incarnates Himself as a redeeming, sustaining, protecting power whenever such a need is felt, which means to say, at every moment of crisis, in the same way as the health-giving forces of our physical organism are ready to act and incarnate themselves into action whenever a crisis arises in the body. So sambhav?mi yuge yuge: At every critical juncture in the history of the cosmos, God, the ever-vigilant sustaining power, incarnates Himself. Therefore, may we be happy. There need be no anxiety as long as we know, believe, remember and accept that God is with us, Narayana is ever with Nara, Krishna is ever with Arjuna, and God is ever with man.

NEXT -15. Seeing the Eternity in the Temporal

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