March 27 – Bhagavadgita Chapter 4; Verses 4.7 (Day 87) Karma Yoga

 March 27 – Day 87

Verse 4.07

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।

अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥ ४-७॥ 

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛijāmyaham (4.07) 

யதா³ யதா³ ஹி த⁴ர்மஸ்ய க்³லானிர்ப⁴வதி¹ பா⁴ரத¹ |
அப்⁴யுத்¹தா²னமத⁴ர்மஸ்ய த¹தா³த்¹மானம் ஸ்ருஜாம்யஹம் ||4.07|| 

7. Whenever there is a decline of righteousness, O Arjuna, and rise of unrighteousness, then I manifest Myself! 

Commentary: That which elevates a man and helps him to reach the goal of life and attain knowledge is Dharma (righteousness); that which drags him into worldliness is unrighteousness. That which helps a man to attain liberation is Dharma; that which makes him irreligious is Adharma or unrighteousness. 

Dharma is that which sustains and holds together.  There is no proper equivalent for this term in the English language.  That which helps a man to attain to Moksha or salvation is Dharma.  That which makes a man irreligious or unrighteous is Adharma.  That which elevates a man and helps him reach the goal of life and attain knowledge is Dharma; that which drags him and hurls him down in the abyss of worldliness and ignorance is Adharma. 

Commentary by Swami Venkatesananda:  

When does God thus manifest himself? Whenever the forces divine, ‘the children of light’, are overwhelmed by the undivine forces or the offspring of darkness, there is a divine manifestation to restore the balance.

This, however, seems to run counter to the scriptural declaration ‘satyameva jayate’ (truth alone triumphs). Is it possible for unrighteousness to overwhelm righteousness, even temporarily? No. Even that seeming triumph of unrighteousness is but a victory to righteousness.

Legend and history bear witness to this process. First there is oppression of the good by the evil. The wicked have no need to reflect, no qualms of conscience. The good are circumspect. The former take undue advantage. (“You need not turn the other cheek – I know where it is”, says the wicked man who persists in his oppression of the good.) When this oppression reaches the limit, there is compression which disturbs the very core of the ‘good’ being oppressed. At this core, there is God. When evil reaches this core, there is explosion; his power manifests itself in its own glory. This is the historical process: oppression, compression, explosion. The first two are necessary conditions for the third and hence it is possible to see in the seeming triumph of unrighteousness a true victory for righteousness. Extreme unrighteousness does a signal service of bringing God and divine power into manifestation.

If all this is puzzling, the Bhāgavataṁ fans it further. It is not as though the children of light are God’s and the wicked ones are the creatures of some other creator. They are all God’s children. There are periods in the cyclic world-process when one or the other of these creatures holds sway. That, too, is God’s play. 

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