Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 4 · Verse 8
BG 4.8
Verse 8 of Chapter 4 — The Yoga of Knowledge.
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām | dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge ||
Sanskrit / Transliteration
TRANSLATION
To deliver the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma, I appear in this world millennium after millennium.
EXPLANATION
The companion to 4.7 — where the previous verse explains why, this explains what. Protection of the good, destruction of the evil, and restoration of dharma are the three purposes of the divine manifestation. Notice the sequence: deliver the righteous first, destroy evil second, restore dharma third. The Gita consistently places protection and upliftment above punishment. This verse is also the Gita's implicit claim about the nature of history: it moves in cycles, and the divine is present in those cycles.