Gita 04.08 – Let Krishna establish dharma within

Bhagavad Gita 4.8 paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśhāya ca duṣkṛtaṁ dharma-saṁsthāpanāthāya sambhāmi yuge yuge this is Krishna telling about the reasons why he appears in this world he is telling paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ paritrāṇāya for delivering sādhūnāṁ vināśhāya ca duṣkṛtāṁ for the sake of destroying the duṣkṛti the miscreants dharma-saṁsthāpanāthāya for the sake of establishing dharma sambhāmi yuge yuge I descend yuga after yuga millennium after millennium now translation of yuge yuge millennium is an approximation now millennia is not exactly the same as yuga but Prabhupāda is using a non-literal translation just to emphasize the principle over here the principle is that Krishna comes again and again so yuge yuge so it's not that now millennia the way we will use it is based on a calculation of million years or whatever way we want to use it but that is not the way it is used in in Sanskrit as yuga it refers to Brahmā's life span or if you are talking about 14 manvantaras in one day of Brahmā or we can refer to one yuga which would be but whichever way we refer to it the word millennium in English does not convey that sense but still it is used here so as to convey the important point that Krishna is so merciful that he keeps coming again and again previous verse stated that he comes whenever there is a decline of religion so in that sense this was a continuation so here it says that he re-establishes religion and now we should not think of dharma as some just abstract concept like say Krishna is explaining temperature balance suppose sometimes there is a fall in the temperature somewhere then how do we restore the temperature then for restoring the temperature balance we have to find out if the temperature has fallen too much then we try to turn on the heater so as to counter lowering the temperature and we find out is there something which is causing the temperature to go cold is some air cooler on or something like that and we turn that off so like that to keep the dharma meter in balance there are two factors to be considered what causes dharma to go down check that and stop it and what causes dharma to go up check that and free that empower that so that's what Krishna does he does not in an abstract sense the cosmic order is restored by what by checking and stopping those who are disrupting the cosmic order so that's why those who are disrupting the cosmic order those who are disrupting the cosmic order so Krishna ends their reign of terror reign of destruction and paritranaya sadhu the saintly people he delivers them when the tyrannical and the exploitative the antisocial are ruling the world at that time they the tyrannical then the spiritually minded the saintly they feel repressed they feel troubled although they determinedly continue their devotion but they always feel under threat Krishna frees them from that threat so that they can practice dharma freely enthusiastically and they can attract more and more people towards the practice of dharma so that principle is talked about over here and at a higher level the paritranaya sadhu paritranaya sadhu also means that devotees are longing to see Krishna and they are afflicted by the the agony by the misery of separation from Krishna and when Krishna comes he delivers them from that anxiety there is a higher level spiritual meaning also devotional meaning and in the point of view of the context here it also means that Krishna establishes dharma by delivering the saintly who are the protectors of dharma who are the personifications of dharma who are the propagators of dharma so they are in anxiety and Krishna delivers them from anxiety by removing whatever threats might be there and by restoring the power with them so that they can continue their practice propagation and protection of dharma so now when we are trying to take shelter of Krishna dharma is to be established not just out there in the world but dharma also has to be established in our heart and the way to establish dharma in our heart is by removing that which is adharmic and by reinforcing that which is dharmic so now when we call Krishna in our heart by praying to him by chanting his holy names by remembering him at that time Krishna does this also so sometimes when we say that I don't feel like chanting that is the time when we need to chant the most when we don't feel like remembering Krishna that is the time when we need to remember him the most why? because it is in soul's natural condition to remember Krishna and to love Krishna and the more the soul is distanced from the natural condition the more the unnatural the more the natural seems undesirable and the unnatural seems desirable that means the more we are away from spiritual consciousness the more the natural state of loving and serving Krishna seems unpalatable why should I do this? and the unnatural state of pursuing sensual pleasures seems to be desirable so even if our feelings are off track we shouldn't let our intelligence go off track and if our intelligence is on track that means our feelings being off track is a sure sign of danger and the feelings are not corrected of disaster therefore just as Krishna descends when there is adharma so like that we need Krishna's descent in our heart the most when our dharmic feelings are dominating our consciousness and that's when he is also eager to manifest to protect us but we have to call out to him he wants to manifest in our heart but he doesn't enroach on our free will but still it's not that in the name of respecting our freedom he wants us to freely go to our doom no he wants to help us so we by trying to remember him, trying to serve him trying to call out to him we can show him that Krishna I want you to manifest in my heart and when we call out like that then Krishna who is eager to rescue us from the clutches of dharma will manifest in our heart and will deliver us and such deliverance will be the supreme perfection of our life so by remembering that Krishna is eager to restore dharma we can continue in our practice of dharma in our desire for practicing dharma even when the desire is very feeble and even when adharmic desires seem to be very furiously strong still Krishna has come to establish dharma Krishna keeps coming to establish dharma and if we call him if we with whatever little capacity we have try to open as much of our heart as possible to call him then he will enter in our heart and he will help us in establishing dharma in our heart when he takes that struggle in his hands that struggle becomes so much more easier to win than it would be otherwise if we were battling on our own so by knowing that we don't have to battle on our own and by knowing that Krishna is ready to take up our battle as his own we can call out to Krishna and he will somehow manifest in our heart and help us and dramatically tilt the scales in the inner war and help us to win that war.