We’re in the midst of a very important discussion as part of the fourth “Adhyaaya” of the Bhagawad Gita, wherein Bhagawan Krishna is slowly revealing the very purpose of His divine incarnation through Arjuna to the entire world. As Arjuna is asking back to back questions, Bhagawan, through His replies to each of them is making Arjuna understand how different He is from the Jeevatmas in this world. In this way, we’ve seen that Bhagawan’s incarnation in this world is not due to the after-effects and resultant of “Karma”. Rather, Bhagawan incarnates in this world due to His unending compassion towards all living beings. Through His incarnation, Bhagawan not only makes the Jeevatmas realize His significance and thereby giving them an opportunity to attain the highest “Moksha”, but also to establish the “Dharma” in this world. To do so, someone has to illustrate the “Dharma” through practice, so that people will have a role model to follow suit, isn’t it? This is the main purpose of Bhagawan’s incarnation – To illustrate the “Dharma” in practice and to show to the world how it should be implemented. We’ve also seen how Bhagawan Vishnu incarnated as Bhagawan Rama to show to the world how a son should respect his father, how a younger brother should respect his elder brother, how a husband-wife relationship should be, etc.
Of course, even if Bhagawan Rama’s main purpose of incarnation was to destroy “Adharma” which was in the form of Ravana, He was more interested in showing the path of “Dharma” to the world, enroute the “Adharma” destruction. Thus, the purpose of Bhagawan’s incarnation is two-fold here – Firstly to establish the “Dharma” through proper illustration and explanation, and secondly, through this path of “Dharma”, the “Adharma” will be destroyed. Bhagawan Rama’s incarnation fulfilled these two purposes completely and same was the case of Bhagawan Krishna as well. Now we’ve to be very clear that Bhagawan does all this out of His “Iccha” (Passion) and this is why we refer Bhagawan’s divine physical body as “Iccha-Deham”. Ours is not an “Iccha-Deham”, rather it is a “Karma-Deham”, because all of us are bound by our “Karma” and we take several births because of that. This is also one reason why we refer Bhagawan’s birth in this world as an “Avatara” or an “Incarnation”. The main reason behind this reference is whatever we’ve seen above.
Moving on further thus, Arjuna’s next question is as follows – “Oh Bhagawan Krishna! If that is the case, who decides on the life span of your birth? Of course, for all of us, it is the “Karma Phalam” that decides when this birth would begin and when it would end. But I’m sure with all the answers that you’ve given me so far, this is not the case for you. So how does it work? Who decides when and where you’ll be incarnating? Who decides the span of your incarnation?” For this, Bhagawan Krishna laughs as he replies – “Oh my dear Arjuna! Whenever there’s a seeming downfall for “Dharma”, I immediately incarnate. Hence, it is the downfall of “Dharma” that decides when, where, for how long I should incarnate in this world. The moment “Adharma” starts lifting its ugly head, I’ll immediately incarnate to destroy it completely. I’ll not let “Adharma” rule the world at any point in time!”
So for today, let us understand this declaration from Bhagawan Krishna clearly. As we understand this, we might have a doubt in our minds – “Oh wow! Till today in this Kali Yuga, Bhagawan hasn’t incarnated as yet. So does this mean that “Adharma” has not lifted up its head in this world? We see so many “Adharmic” activities going on around us in different forms! How come Bhagawan’s words haven’t come true still?” An interesting answer awaits us in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 