Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita- Discourse 8

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Wednesday, April 21, 2021. 11:57. AM.
Chapter-8.The Fourth Chapter Begins: The Avataras of God
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We have studied three chapters of the Bhagavadgita. If you have listened to me carefully, you would have noticed that the compressed matter that has gone into the first three chapters lays the very foundation, as it were, of the whole spiritual teaching for mankind. As difficult it is to remember all these things, so difficult it is to make out the various facets involved in the teaching; and more difficult it is to put them into daily practice. The poor human individual with a frail intellect, with an even more frail body, with tensions which are political, social and of many other types—how will this individual be able to grasp this teaching? Where is the brain for it? It is difficult to intellectually comprehend the inner secrets hidden even in the first three chapters. So much has been said about practically everything. Nobody will remember all these things—except this tape recorder. It will record everything, but others cannot remember everything in detail.

This difficulty is likely to be felt by everyone, as ordinary human individuals are subject to limitations of every kind. Is the human individual to feel disappointed that, after all, it seems to be too big an affair and we are perhaps not fit, either physically or mentally, to face the profound realities of this world? Are we to be in a state of despondency and feel a sense of helplessness? No. There is a guiding hand operating through the cosmos. It is not merely a picture of problems and difficulties and scientific interconnections that has been placed before us. The picture of the universe in terms of modern physics, chemistry and astronomy may be enough to frighten us out of our wits. We cannot even imagine what kind of world it is, with such width and such depth and such intricacies of inner composition. Such are the gunas of prakriti; such is prakriti; such is purusha; such are the involvements of consciousness and matter, and individuality, and whatnot. All sorts of things have been told. We seem to be as far from this lofty teaching as we are from the stars. Is it so?

The Fourth Chapter begins with a great consolation. The element of spiritual guidance is brought into the focus of the attention of the student. There is a perpetual guidance flowing from every part of the cosmos. The whole universe is composed of friends, well-wishers, who are eager to see that we are protected, that we are guarded and enabled to rise higher and higher, to more and more profound states of perfection. They are the directions of the heavens which are dominated and superintended by divinities called the Ashtadiggajas, the divinities of the four quarters, the gods who superintend over our sense organs and our mental psyche, the very prakriti itself whose sattva, rajas and tamas are in our own personality, and the supreme purusha, which is implanted in the recesses of our heart. These are the highest friendly forces. There are no enemies in this world.

The highest possibility of help comes from a Universal intelligence which permeates through the entire material universe and all the fourteen lokas; and whenever there is disharmony among the parts of the cosmos, the power of God descends as an avatara. The incarnation of God is nothing but the cosmic intelligence operating through required media at a given time, in a given manner, for a given purpose.

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Gita-Ch-4,Slo-7.

"yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham." (4-7.)

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Translation by word :

yadā yadā—whenever;

hi—certainly;

dharmasya—of righteousness;

glāniḥ—decline;

bhavati—is;

bhārata—Arjun, descendant of Bharat;

abhyutthānam—increase;

adharmasya—of unrighteousness;

tadā—at that time;

ātmānam—self;

sṛijāmi—manifest;

aham—I.

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Translation of the Slokam :

BG 4.7: Whenever there is a decline in righteousness and an increase in unrighteousness, O Arjun, at that time I manifest myself on earth.

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Commentary :

Dharma is verily the prescribed actions that are conducive to our spiritual growth and progress; the reverse of this is adharma (unrighteousness). When unrighteousness prevails, the creator and administrator of the world intervenes by descending and reestablishing dharma. Such a descension of God is called an Avatār. The word “Avatar” has been adopted from Sanskrit into English and is commonly used for people’s images on the media screen. In this text, we will be using it in its original Sanskrit connotation, to refer to the divine descension of God. Twenty four such descensions have been listed in the Śhrīmad Bhāgavatam. However, the Vedic scriptures state that there are innumerable descensions of God:

(Bhāgavatam 10.51.36)[v5]

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"janma-karmābhidhānāni santi me ’ṅga sahasraśhaḥ
na śhakyante ’nusankhyātum anantatvān mayāpi hi."

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“Nobody can count the infinite Avatars of God since the beginning of eternity.” These Avatars are classified in four categories, as stated below:

1. Āveśhāvatār—when God manifests his special powers in an individual soul and acts through him. The sage Narad is an example of Āveśhāvatār. The Buddha is also an example of Āveśhāvatār.

2. Prābhavāvatār—these are the descensions of God in the personal form, where he displays some of his divine powers. Prābhavāvatārs are also of two kinds:

a) Where God reveals himself only for a few moments, completes his work, and then departs. Hansavatar is an example of this, where God manifested before the Kumaras, answered their question, and left.

b) Where the Avatar remains on the earth for many years. Ved Vyas, who wrote the eighteen Puranas and the Mahabharat, and divided the Vedas into four parts, is an example of such an Avatar.

3. Vaibhavatār—when God descends in his divine form, and manifests more of his divine powers. Matsyavatar, Kurmavatar, Varahavatar are all examples of Vaibhavatārs.

4. Parāvasthāvatār—when God manifests all his divine powers in his personal divine form. Shree Krishna, Shree Ram, and Nrisinghavatar are all Parāvasthāvatār.

This classification does not imply that any one Avatār is bigger than the other. Ved Vyas, who is himself an Avatār, clearly states this: sarve pūrṇāḥ śhāśhvatāśhcha dehāstasya paramātmanaḥ (Padma Purāṇ)[v6] “All the descensions of God are replete with all divine powers; they are all perfect and complete.” Hence, we should not differentiate one Avatar as bigger and another as smaller. However, in each descension, God manifests his powers based on the objectives he wishes to accomplish during that particular descension. The remaining powers reside latently within the Avatar. Hence, the above classifications were created.

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Gita-Ch-4,Slo-8 :

paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge (4.8)

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Translation by word :

paritrāṇāya—to protect;

sādhūnām—the righteous;

vināśhāya—to annihilate;

cha—and;

duṣhkṛitām—the wicked;

dharma—the eternal religion;

sansthāpana-arthāya—to reestablish;

sambhavāmi—I appear;

yuge yuge—age after age

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Translation of Slokam :

BG 4.8: To protect the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma I appear on this earth, age after age.

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Commentary

Having stated in the last verse that God descends in the world, he now states the three reasons for doing so: 1) To annihilate the wicked. 2) To protect the pious. 3) To establish dharma. However, if we closely study these three points, none of the three reasons seem very convincing:

To protect the righteous. God is seated in the hearts of his devotees, and always protects them from within. There is no need to take an Avatar for this purpose.

To annihilate the wicked. God is all-powerful, and can kill the wicked merely by wishing it. Why should he have to take an Avatar to accomplish this?

To establish dharma. Dharma is eternally described in the Vedas. God can reestablish it through a Saint; he does not need to descend himself, in his personal form, to accomplish this.

How then do we make sense of the reasons that have been stated in this verse? Let’s delve a little deeper to grasp the import of what Shree Krishna is stating.

The biggest dharma that the soul can engage in is devotion to God. That is what God strengthens by taking an Avatār. When God descends in the world, he reveals his divine forms, names, virtues, pastimes, abodes, and associates. This provides the souls with an easy basis for devotion. Since the mind needs a form to focus upon and to connect with, the formless aspect of God is very difficult to worship. On the other hand, devotion to the personal form of God is easy for people to comprehend, simple to perform, and sweet to engage in.

Thus, since the descension of Lord Krishna 5,000 years ago, billions of souls have made his divine leelas (pastimes) as the basis of their devotion, and purified their minds with ease and joy. Similarly, the Ramayan has provided the souls with a popular basis for devotion for innumerable centuries. When the TV show, Ramayan, first began airing on Indian national television on Sunday mornings, all the streets of India would become empty. The pastimes of Lord Ram held such fascination for the people that they would be glued to their television sets to see the leelas on the screen. This reveals how Lord Ram’s descension provided the basis for devotion to billions of souls in history. The Ramayanam says:

“In his descension period, Lord Ram helped only one Ahalya (Sage Gautam’s wife, whom Lord Ram released from the body of stone). However, since then, by chanting the divine name “Ram,” billions of fallen souls have elevated themselves.” So a deeper understanding of this slokam is:

To establish dharma: God descends to establish the dharma of devotion by providing souls with his names, forms, pastimes, virtues, abodes, and associates, with the help of which they may engage in bhakti and purify their minds.

To kill the wicked: Along with God, to help facilitate his divine pastimes, some liberated Saints descend and pretend to be miscreants. For example, Ravan and Kumbhakarna were Jaya and Vijaya who descended from the divine abode of God. They pretended to be demons and opposed and fought with Ram. They could not have been killed by anyone else, since they were divine personalities. So, God slayed such demons as a part of his leelas. And having killed them, he sent them to his divine abode, since that was where they came from in the first place.

To be continued ....

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