Sanskrit
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत । अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदाऽऽत्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥
yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmy aham
Translation
Whenever there is decay of righteousness, O Bhârata, and there is exaltation of unrighteousness, then I Myself come forth;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This is the verse most readers know as the Gita’s statement of avatâra: whenever dharma decays and adharma rises, “I Myself come forth.” Paired with verse 8’s threefold purpose and its refrain “yuge yuge,” age after age, it turns the personal claim of verses 5-6 into a general law about how the divine relates to history — repeated intervention, not a single incarnation. It also reads as a direct answer to the crisis Arjuna is standing in the middle of: the moral collapse he described in Chapter 1 is exactly the kind of decay this doctrine addresses.
Concepts