Yog of Knowledge and Action
Chapter 4, Verse 7
yadā yadā hi dharmasya
glānir-bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam-adharmasya
tadā’tmānaṁ sṛjāmy-aham
Whenever there is the fading of the dharma, like nowadays, and the uprising of unrighteousness, then I bring Myself forth into birth.
As I said earlier, there is no fixed time or period for God to manifest Himself. It can’t be positively asserted that He will manifest in a certain yuga or place, or in a certain month or year. There is no rule about how many times or in how many forms the Lord will manifest in a certain yuga. Yadā yadā: He can manifest Himself whenever He wants. He can take any form He wants. He can manifest in any place He wants.
“Whenever there is the fading of the dharma and the uprising of unrighteousness.” He alone knows when the world is in danger of destruction, when there is the decline of dharma, and virtue, and the rise of vice. Then by His own Will, He manifests Himself to save the righteous, to protect dharma. When we look at all the previous incarnations of Narayana, we see that He incarnated whenever there was a demon terrorising the Earth. In all the yugas, He manifested Himself to kill the demons, like Hiranyakashipu and Ravana who represented immorality, vice, and adharma. When they were in power, people were forced to stop doing their spiritual practices. When we look at the story of Hiranyakashipu, when he started terrorising the people, what did he do? First, he did everything to make people stop praying to God, stop loving, stop doing japa, stop all their austerities, so that he could control them. When one is too attached to the objects of the senses, when one’s mind runs only towards the outside world, when one is going to doom oneself, out of His mercy and Love for humanity, God always sends help. He always sends a reminder. He sends the Guru. He sends people with divine qualities to remind you.
That’s why He says, yadā yadā hi dharmasya. Whenever there is even a small state of adharma, He, who is the Soul of souls, always comes to remind people of dharma. There was not a time when He hasn’t manifested Himself. That’s why He says that He is not bound by any form. He can manifest Himself in any form He wills. No human being has the knowledge of how He will come. You see this in the life of saints. Take the life of St. Martin of Tours. He had the virtue, he had the goodness, but he was not aware of it; his mind was blind. So, Christ took the appearance of a beggar to remind him of the good that he had inside of him. He appeared disguised as a beggar, but afterwards St. Martin had a vision which revealed who this beggar was in reality. Similar incidents have happened in the lives of many saints, not only in the West, but also in the East.
Bhagavan Himself came in the form of Jesus to show the way, when humans were attached to traditions and rituals in an extremely rigid and strict way. He came to remind people that one has to let go of this, because the Love which one has inside is much more important than these traditions. He came to remind people, “Don’t be attached to all this tradition. Free yourself! You are beyond this tradition.” People had forgotten what the aim of this tradition and of these customs were. Similarly, He was saying to Arjuna, “Wake up!”
When people in India had forgotten about God and were only focusing on the formless God, the impersonal God without form, He manifested Himself in the form of Sri Adi Shankaracharya to remove this ignorance. Then later on, He manifested Himself again to give Bhakti. Throughout the ages, He has manifested Himself in many forms that no one knows about: not even the scriptures know about it. It’s beyond the scriptures because the scriptures have a limitation. It’s beyond the Vedas, because the Vedas have a limitation. How can limitation talk about the Unlimited One, who doesn’t have a beginning or an end?
In this verse, Krishna is showing that He’s the all-knowing. He knows best when to manifest, how to manifest, where to manifest. He says, “’I bring Myself forth into birth. By My own Will I manifest Myself. Everything has been created and manifested through My own Will. Throughout time I have spoken to the prophets."
Some people may ask, “How can God have a form?” God does have a form. When He talked to Moses on the mountain, He first manifested Himself in the form of a Light, which was so bright that Moses could not even look at it. Moses was a great sage, a great yogi, but even he could not look at the Light of God. Even if the Light appeared to be burning like a burning bush, it was not really burning! The nature of fire is to burn, no? But here He showed that He can create a fire which doesn’t burn. He has full power over everything. Moses could not even look at this Light, until the Lord allowed him to bear its brilliance. If he couldn’t look at God’s Light, how could he look at God’s Body? How could he look at His face?
When Christ transfigured Himself, John, Peter and James could not look at Him. They threw themselves on the ground saying, “So much light! Too much light!” These people were great yogis, but they could not look at God’s Light and they had to cover their faces. A realised soul shouldn’t have the illusion that he knows God. You can’t even handle your own light! How could you handle the Light of God? You can’t. Surrender!
Moses went to the mountain wearing his shoes. And God says to Moses, “Take off your shoes! This place is holy!” Understand this. This is what Krishna is saying to Arjuna. “Remove your shoes! Remove your ignorance! Purify yourself! Don’t hang onto the desires. Don’t hang onto your mind! Be free!”
The feet have all the senses in them. All the organs of the body are represented in the feet. In reflexology, it is shown that the feet represent the whole being. That’s why wherever we go, we touch the Feet of the Master; we are focused on the Feet of the Master; we surrender to the Feet of the Master. In this verse, the Lord says to Arjuna, “I can manifest Myself in any form: the scriptures don’t know where or when I will manifest Myself. But I always do it when there is a threat that the whole world will perish. And when there is a threat that one will perish, I manifest Myself in the form of the Guru, to help free one from ignorance.”
When God manifested Himself in the form of the Light to Moses, He tells him, “Moses, after you have cleansed yourself, after you have removed your shoes, come to Me, your God!” After you have attained Self-Realisation, don’t think that this is the Ultimate Realisation! This realisation is only one step towards God-Realisation.” He says, “Moses, come to Me with an open heart, free from desires which are the enemy of mankind. Sit, let’s talk! Let me reveal Myself to you! Come, realise Me inside of you!” God says, “Moses, turn your face! I will pass in front of you. Don’t look at Me! Because you will not be able to bear Me. If you can’t handle My Light, how could you handle Me? So I will pass My back in front of you.” This means that God has a back! It is held that the Bible says that God doesn’t have a form. If this is true, how can He have a back? People say, “Oh, you should not create any image of God. You should not do this and that.” But in the Bible Itself, it is written that God says to Moses, “Cover your face! I will pass My back in front of you. There’s no man who has been face to face with Me and has stayed alive.” That’s what He says to Moses, isn’t it? In that manifestation, He says to Moses, “Cover your face! You have not yet done your dharma. You still have a lot to do before you fully attain Me and become part of Me! Turn your face away so I can pass in front of you with My back.” If God has a back, He has a front! And He has a form. And this is Narayana Himself.
Here Krishna reminds Arjuna, “I am not bound by the scriptures.” Some people may ask, “Why are you praying to this Guru or to these saints? They are not in the scriptures!” Very often you find people who say, “We accept only what is written in the scriptures, and nothing else!” But here Bhagavan says, “I am beyond the scriptures! How can somebody who is attached to the knowledge of scriptures, perceive Me? It’s impossible! When one purifies the heart, when one’s mind is fully absorbed in devotion to God, then one can perceive only a glimpse of my true Nature; not all, just a glimpse, just a fraction, no more than that.” Even that fraction is sometimes very difficult to perceive because people still doubt. Here Arjuna symbolises the doubting people. People doubt and complicate themselves, they complicate their lives, instead of taking full advantage of the opportunities given by God.
Bhagavad Gita
