BHAGAVAD-GITA 4:8

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 4:8

 

paritranaya sadhunam

vinasaya ca duskrtam

dharma-samsthapanarthaya

sambhavami yuge yuge

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

paritranaya--for the deliverance; sadhunam--of the devotees;

vinasaya--for the annihilation; ca--and; duskrtam--of the miscreants;

dharma--principles of religion; samsthapana-arthaya--to reestablish;

sambhavami--I do appear; yuge--millennium; yuge--after millennium.

 

TRANSLATION

 

To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to

reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium

after millennium.

 

PURPORT

 

According to Bhagavad-gita, a sadhu (holy man) is a man in Krsna

consciousness. A person may appear to be irreligious, but if he has

the qualifications of Krsna consciousness wholly and fully, he is to

be understood to be a sadhu. And duskrtam applies to those who do not

care for Krsna consciousness. Such miscreants, or duskrtam, are

described as foolish and the lowest of mankind, even though they may

be decorated with mundane education, whereas a person who is one

hundred percent engaged in Krsna consciousness is accepted as a sadhu,

even though such a person may be neither learned nor well cultured. As

far as the atheistic are concerned, it is not necessary for the

Supreme Lord to appear as He is to destroy them, as He did with the

demons Ravana and Kamsa. The Lord has many agents who are quite

competent to vanquish demons. But the Lord especially descends to

appease His unalloyed devotees, who are always harassed by the

demoniac. The demon harasses the devotee, even though the latter may

happen to be his kin. Although Prahlada Maharaja was the son of

Hiranyakasipu, he was nonetheless persecuted by his father; although

Devaki, the mother of Krsna, was the sister of Kamsa, she and her

husband Vasudeva were persecuted only because Krsna was to be born of

them. So Lord Krsna appeared primarily to deliver Devaki, rather than

kill Kamsa, but both were performed simultaneously. Therefore it is

said here that to deliver the devotee and vanquish the demon

miscreants, the Lord appears in different incarnations.

 

In the Caitanya-caritamrta of Krsnadasa Kaviraja, the following verses

(Madhya 20.263-264) summarize these principles of incarnation:

 

srsti-hetu yei murti prapance avatare

sei isvara-murti `avatara' nama dhare

mayatita paravyome sabara avasthana

visve avatari 'dhare `avatara' nama

 

"The avatara, or incarnation of Godhead, descends from the kingdom of God

for material manifestation. And the particular form of the Personality

of Godhead who so descends is called an incarnation, or avatara. Such

incarnations are situated in the spiritual world, the kingdom of God.

When they descend to the material creation, they assume the name

avatara."

 

There are various kinds of avataras, such as purusavataras,

gunavataras, lilavataras, sakty-avesa avataras, manvantara-avataras

and yugavataras--all appearing on schedule all over the universe. But

Lord Krsna is the primeval Lord, the fountainhead of all avataras.

Lord Sri Krsna descends for the specific purpose of mitigating the

anxieties of the pure devotees, who are very anxious to see Him in His

original Vrndavana pastimes. Therefore, the prime purpose of the Krsna

avatara is to satisfy His unalloyed devotees.

 

The Lord says that He incarnates Himself in every millennium. This

indicates that He incarnates also in the Age of Kali. As stated in the

Srimad-Bhagavatam, the incarnation in the Age of Kali is Lord Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, who spread the worship of Krsna by the sankirtana movement

(congregational chanting of the holy names) and spread Krsna consciousness

throughout India. He predicted that this culture of sankirtana would

be broadcast all over the world, from town to town and village to

village. Lord Caitanya as the incarnation of Krsna, the Personality of

Godhead, is described secretly but not directly in the confidential

parts of the revealed scriptures, such as the Upanisads, Mahabharata

and Bhagavatam. The devotees of Lord Krsna are very much attracted by

the sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya. This avatara of the Lord

does not kill the miscreants, but delivers them by His causeless

mercy.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.