A Study of the Bhagavadgita -7. 10. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, September 12, 2021. 6:40.PM.
Chapter 7:The Entry of the Absolute into the Relative - 10.
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"Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham." (Gita-4.7)
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Translation :

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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Tatvam of the slokam ( 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:

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janma-karmābhidhānāni santi me ’ṅga sahasraśhaḥ
na śhakyante ’nusankhyātum anantatvān mayāpi hi (Bhāgavatam 10.51.36)[v5]
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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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"Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam
dharma-sansthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge." (Gita-4.8.)
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Translation :

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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Tatvam of the slokam (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 Ramayan says:

rām eka tāpasa tiya tārī, nāma koṭi khala kumati sudhārī [v7]

“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 verse 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 protect the righteous: Many souls had become sufficiently elevated in their sādhanā (spiritual practice) to qualify to meet God face-to-face. When Shree Krishna descended in the world, these eligible souls got their first opportunity to participate in God’s divine pastimes. For example, some gopīs (cowherd women of Vrindavan, where Shree Krishna manifested his pastimes) were liberated souls who had descended from the divine abode to assist in Shree Krishna’s leelas. Other gopīs were materially bound souls who got their first chance to meet and serve God, and participate in his leelas. So when Shree Krishna descended in the world, such qualified souls got the opportunity to perfect their devotion by directly participating in the pastimes of God.

This is the deeper meaning of the verse. However, it is not wrong if someone wishes to cognize the verse more literally or metaphorically.

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These two verses are a glorious, consoling message coming from God Himself to frail man who is crying from moment to moment in the wilderness of his mortal existence. You are always under the protection of an all-seeing eye. That you are suffering and nobody knows that you are suffering is not a fact. That you are not wanting to take advantage of the fact that somebody is looking to you and is willing to support you is your difficulty. The assertion of your individuality by means of egoism takes possession of you again and again in the form of a doubt whether God will come or not. “I have never seen God, and He has never come and helped anybody up to this time. I have never seen Him helping, so how do I know that he will help me? After fifteen days of crying, He has not come. How do I know that on the sixteenth day he will come?” These doubts will harass you.

He may sometimes take sixteen days to come on account of the inner obstructions created by your own tamasic karmas that may perhaps be working, but even tamasic karmas can be destroyed by the power of God. He can destroy even karmas. He can dissolve the parliament of the cosmos if He does not want any government. He doesn’t always have to stick to a parliamentary ordinance. Though He does that mostly, He can also dissolve it in one second. If your love of God is so intense, He can directly catch hold of you and protect you, but not through parliamentary or legal operations. If this faith, which is bhakti, knowledge and devotion combined, is predominant in you, there is a powerful sattva action. Immediate action will take place.

But our attachment to this body and our consideration of an external relationship with human affairs, our mortal entanglements, are so intense that often this kind of faith cannot arise in us. Only when we are sinking in the sea, sometimes this faith arises. “I have lost everything. I am not able to stand. Even the ground is shaking.” When everything is gone and nothing will come, if that threat of even a moment’s survival takes possession of you, you will feel God, the real God.

Otherwise, in ordinary circumstances, this faith is shaken by the fact that you seem to be involved in certain realities of life. The realities of life should desert you completely. Nobody should want you. You are an unwanted person in the world, crucified. At that time, God will come. “Oh, you want to crucify me? I am not wanted in this world.” All your love for things vanishes in one second. All your consideration for that which is externally oriented goes. Neither your family wants you, nor the world wants you. Such conditions are not uncommon in the history of humanity. Read human history. Who wants you, finally? Your adjustment with the whims and fancies of other people somehow or other makes you feel that you are wanted by others. Do not make that adjustment, and see what happens to you. You will be thrown into the ocean in one second. This is the world. Humankind is made in this way; everything is made in this way.

But why do you invite such conditions that you should be crucified by humanity? Doctors need not fall sick in order to understand the sickness of a patient. Their wisdom will tell them what kind of predicament it is. So you need not be turned out of this world by force. Honourably you can go from this world by understanding what the world is made of. “It is good to quit while the quitting is good,” as they say. Why should you be thrown out?

To be continued...

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