Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 - JnanaKarmaSanyasa Yoga - Sloka 8

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.

The Advent & acts of the Incarnation - 4-9

1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 4 -JnanaKarmaSanyasa Yoga - Sloka 8

Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam I

Dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge II sloka 8

परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृतं ।

धर्म संस्थापनार्थाय संभवामि युगे युगे ।। श्लोक ८ 

For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the establishment of dharma, I am born age after age.

Purgation is an unfailing process of nature. The cleansing takes place at all levels in various ways. In the agricultural field it goes on as weeding and manuring. When the wicked become more in number in the world of dharma would not thrive in their midst. War, pestilence, famine, and such forces inevitabily come in both to strike a balance of population and to set right the perverts

Among the 3 gunas the predominance of Rajas & Tamas  aggravates adharma  which threatens to topple the social fabric. The function of the incarnation is to induce sattva the chief and foremost of the gunas in society. And along with it dharma begins to thrive. A balance of power among the 3 gunas is necessary for social order to work on right lines.

A viceroy is deputed by the monarch to quell lawlessness and disorder in a distant dominion. Similarly an incarnation is the man of authority sent by Iswara into society. He comes to put in order all lapses & deviations in the practice of dharma.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa