General Hinduism

Bhagavadgītā 4: appearing age after age

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Kāshināth Trimbak Telang, Sacred Books of the East VIII (1882), chapter IV, pp.58–59; Internet Sacred Text Archive transcription. Line breaks and footnote markers normalized.

Public-domain historical English edition. Modern site navigation and editorial additions excluded.

I have passed through many births, O Arguna I and you also. I know them all, but you, O terror of (your) foes! do not know them. Even though I am unborn and inexhaustible in (my) essence, even though I am lord of all beings, still I take up the control of my own nature, and am born by means of my delusive power. Whensoever, O descendant of Bharata! piety languishes, and impiety is in the ascendant, I create myself. I am born age after age, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and the establishment of piety. Whoever truly knows thus my divine birth and work, casts off (this) body and is not born again. He comes to me, O Arguna!

In the margin

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Knowing the divine birth and escaping rebirth

interpretation

On: Whoever truly knows thus my divine birth and work, casts off (this) body and is not born again.

Source quotation · Rāmānuja, Gītā Bhāṣya 4.9, printed pp.142–143; A. Govindacharya’s 1898 English translation and annotations

9. ‘Whoso understandeth in their true nature, My Divine Incarnations and Doings, he, Arjuna! doth not come to re-birth after quitting the body, but goeth to Me.’ Whoso, in verity, comprehends the divine, immaterial and unique nature of My Incarnations, and My Acts (connected therewith) which are solely designed for the benefit of those who seek Me as their Rest; and which are intended for the protection of the good (sādhu);—whoso understands the real nature of Incarnate-manifestations (viz; Vibhava[142:2] manifestation’, No 3 from Para)—and Works thereof,—as different from the compulsory births which come to beings as a consequence of their past deeds (karma), arising from the union between pure ātmā (spirit) and the triple-natured impure prakṛiti (matter);—whoso knows the Incarnations to be of Him, Who is possessed of such Glorious Attributes, such as Lordship over all, Omniscience, Firm-will etc.,—such a man does not return to re-birth after departing from his present body. He reaches Me alone. That is, by accurate discriminative knowledge which he may possess regarding My divine Avatāras and Divine Acts, one becomes rid of all sin which may stand as a barrier against his coming to Me. In his present birth alone, he will gain Me, by placing implicit reliance on Me (in the aforesaid manner), by making himself exclusively dear to Me, by making Me the absorbing Occupation for all his thoughts. [Translator’s notes — A. Govindacharya, 1898] [142:2] Vide: note 1, p. 9

Śrī Bhagavad-Gītā with Rāmānuja’s commentary · A. Govindacharya, Śrī Bhagavad-Gītā with Śrī Rāmānujāchārya’s Visishtādvaita-Commentary, Vaijayanti Press, Madras, 1898. Chapter IV, printed pp.138–143 (PDF pages 149–154). English verse renderings and complete connected commentary on 4.6–4.9; original translator footnotes included. Visually collated against the print scan, 10 September 2026. Page furniture and Devanagari verse incipits omitted; line-end hyphens joined, paragraph spacing and quotation glyphs normalized, italics rendered as plain text. Footnotes keyed by printed page and number; yuga table set as lines. Sanskrit transliteration follows printed spelling with Unicode diacritics; the scan’s subscript hiatus sign is represented by ₂. Printed anomalous references and punctuation retained; no handwritten corrections applied. The bracketed heading [Translator’s notes — A. Govindacharya, 1898] is an editorial separator added by Rainbow Watch to distinguish the translator’s apparatus from the commentary; footnote wording is unchanged.

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Public-domain 1898 English translation and annotations, published before 1931. Reproduced from the historical scan.

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Protecting dharma in every age

interpretation

On: Whensoever, O descendant of Bharata! piety languishes, and impiety is in the ascendant, I create myself.

Source quotation · Jñāneśvar, Jñāneśvarī 4.49–50, explaining Bhagavadgītā 4.7; new Rainbow Watch translation from Marathi

जें धर्मजात आघवें । युगायुगीं म्यां रक्षावें । ऐसा ओघु हा स्वभावें । आद्यु असे ॥४९॥ म्हणौनि अजत्व परतें ठेवीं । मी अव्यक्तपणही नाठवीं । जे वेळीं धर्मातें अभिभवी । अधर्मु हा ॥५०॥ New English translation from Marathi 49. It has been the course of things from the beginning that I myself should protect all dharma age after age. 50. So when this adharma overcomes dharma, I set aside my being unborn and do not keep my unmanifestness in mind.

Jñāneśvarī (Bhāvārtha Dīpikā) · Chapter 4, Marathi ovīs 49–50, Sant Sahitya transcription. Original verse text only, excluding the modern Marathi explanatory prose. New machine-assisted English translation by Rainbow Watch, 2026, directly from the displayed Marathi; not R. K. Bhagwat’s English wording.

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Jñāneśvar’s thirteenth-century Marathi verse is public domain. New Rainbow Watch English translation, 2026, released under CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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2026-09-11T03:53:51+00:00

Rāmānuja on birth by divine will

interpretation

On: am born by means of my delusive power

Source quotation · Rāmānuja, Gītā Bhāṣya 4.6, printed pp.138–140; A. Govindacharya’s 1898 English translation and annotations

6. ‘Birthless, and of nature Imperishable, and Lord of all beings, yet do I establish Myself in my own Prakṛiti (matter), and will (māyā) Myself to be born.’ Never divesting Myself of My essential attributes of Suzerainty, that of being Birthless, of being Exhaustless (avyaya), of being the Lord of all, et cætera, I go into birth, of My own free choice, by planting Myself in My own native (material) nature. Prakṛiti=substance literally, or the material part of My nature, or nature itself. ‘I enter into My own nature, take on My own form, and with My own free-choice, I take on births.’ This is the purport. The forms or shapes in which I make Myself visible are such as are described in such Śruti passages as:— ‘Him, Who is of Sun-color, Who is beyond tamas (darkness).’[139:1] ‘Him, Who dwells beyond rajas (matter)’[139:2] ‘He, the Spirit in the interior of the sun, of golden hue.’[139:3] ‘That Spirit in it (the heart), Who is mind-pervaded (i.e., Whom a cleansed mind perceives), the Immortal, the Golden.’[139:4] ‘All the unwinking (devas), (or the winking=man etc.,) sprang from the lightning-like Spirit.’[139:5] ‘He of resplendent Form, the Firm-resolved, and Subtile-souled like space (ākāśa).’[139:6] ‘He is All-act, All-desire, All-odour, All-taste.’[139:7] ‘Whose raiment is gold-colored.’[139:8] etc., etc. Ātma-māyā=Ātmiyayā māyayā=By My own native Māyā or will (or will-power).[139:7] Māyā meaning will, knowledge, consciousness, intelligence or understanding is from the authority:—‘Māyā vayunam jñānam’ (nighant). Famous authors have used māyā in the above sense, as for example:— ‘By His intelligence (or omniscience=māyā), He knows the ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ of His creatures.’[139:9] ‘By My intelligence’ or ‘by My knowledge’, means: ‘by My will (saṅkalpa=resolve). By My (free)-will, thus, I am born, but not laying aside My essential (godly) attributes of, viz; the being evil-Opposed, the being the Abode of Glorious Perfections, the being the Lord of all, etc. I take on forms as pertain to the devas (celestial beings), man (terrestrial creatures), and so on: and manifest Myself as if I were of their nature, by My own free choice. It is this that is voiced in the Śruti:— ‘Being Unborn, He is (yet) born Multiform.,’[140:1] etc., meaning that Īśvara incarnates in manifold ways as like the devas, like man etc.,—only so far is He in common with His creatures. As for taking birth it is, in His case, by free-will, whereas in the case of the creatures, it is impelled by karma. In declaring this sense, the previous verse, viz; ‘Many births have past for Me; for thee also, Arjuna!. I remember them all etc.’ (iv-5), and the following verses viz: ‘Then do I create Myself.’ (iv-7); ‘Whoso understandeth rightly, thus, My births and Works etc.’ (iv-9),—are one in agreement. The times of the Avatāras are now indicated:— [Translator’s notes — A. Govindacharya, 1898] [139:1] ‘Āditya varṇam tamasaḥ parastāt.’ Svet-Up°. III-8. [139:2] ‘Kshayantam asya rajasaḥ-parāke.’ Tait. Samh. II-2-12. [139:3] ‘Ya esho ₂ ntar-āditye hiraṇmayaḥ Purushaḥ.’ Chh: Up°. I-66. [139:4] ‘Tasminn-ayam Purusho manomayaḥ, amṛito hiraṇmayaḥ.’ Tait: Up°. I-6-1. [139:5] ‘Sarvenimeshā jajñire vidyutaḥ purushād-adhi.’ Tait: Nārā. I-1-8. [139:6] ‘Bhārūpas sattya-saṅkalpa ākāś-Ātmā.’ Chh: Up°. III-14-2. [139:7] ‘Sarva-karmā Sarva-kāmas Sarva-gandhas Sarva-rasaḥ.’ Chh: Up°. III-14-2. [139:8] ‘Māhārajanam vāsaḥ.’ Bṛi: Up°. IV-3-6. [139:9] ‘Māyayā satatam vetti prāṇināñcha śubhā₂śubham.’ Also consult Bhagavad-vishaya Vol. III, p. 1264. Also See Vedānta-Tatva-Sāra (Benares Edition) on Māyā, and Śāndilya Sūtras. [140:1] ‘Ajāyamāno bahudhā vijāyate.’ (Tait: Āran: III-13).

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Public-domain 1898 English translation and annotations, published before 1931. Reproduced from the historical scan.

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Telang explains divine birth

interpretation

On: control of my own nature

Source quotation · Kāshināth Trimbak Telang — note 58:3

Nature is what goes to the formation of the material form in which he is born; the 'power' includes knowledge, omnipotence, &c. It is delusive because he is still really 'unborn.'

The Bhagavadgītā · Kāshināth Trimbak Telang, Sacred Books of the East VIII (1882), chapter IV, pp.58–59; Internet Sacred Text Archive transcription. Line breaks and footnote markers normalized.

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Public-domain historical English edition. Modern site navigation and editorial additions excluded.

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2026-09-09T18:58:18+00:00

Nature is what goes to the formation of the material form in which he is born; the 'power' includes knowledge, omnipotence, &c. It is delusive because he is still really 'unborn.'

Why the incarnations have no fixed period

interpretation

On: I am born age after age, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and the establishment of piety.

Source quotation · Rāmānuja, Gītā Bhāṣya 4.7–4.8, printed pp.140–142; A. Govindacharya’s 1898 English translation and annotations

7. ‘Whensoever and wheresoever, Bhārata!,[140:2] virtue wanes and vice waxes, then (and there) do I create Myself.’ No fixed periods are appointed for My Avatāras. Whensoever dharma (righteousness etc.,) as is ordained to be practised by the four varṇas[140:3] and the four āśramās[140:3] decline, and wheresoever its opposite adharma increases, then do I manifest Myself in Incarnations, of My own free-will, in the manner explained already (verse 7, ante). The purpose of the Avatāras is now stated:— 8. ‘For protecting the virtuous and destroying (punishing) the wicked, and for firmly re-installing dharma, am I born from yuga to yuga[141:1] (age to age).’ Sādhus: are the good and virtuous, the godly, the eminent Vaishnavas (or worshippers of the All-Pervading Spirit=Vishnu[141:2]), who are seeking Me out as their Shelter. They are those who feel that without seeing Me—Whose names and wonderful works transcend the powers of speech and mind—they cannot live and move, cannot support their very being. They are those to whom a single moment of My absence from their memory, is as it were a kalpa. For the protection of these holy men,—lest they,in their agony at not seeing Me, pine away—, I grant them the privilege (or right) to be able to see Me and My doings, and hold converse with Me, and so on. For this purpose, viz., (1) protecting the good, (2) destroying the wicked (the doers of heinous things,—sinners), who stand in contrast to the good, and (3) for re-instating the Vaidik or Veda-forms of dharma, which had suffered decay, I take Incarnations. Dharma is, in fact Modes of My Worship, (in order to attain salvation, or other minor objects which men may aspire for through Me), and My manifestations as Avatāras serve as Objects of that worship. And (hence), I become like the devas, like men etc., from age to age: ‘Age to age (yuga to yuga)’; is to imply that I should incarnate whenever I chose, not that My Incarnations should be confined to any particular yuga such as the kṛita, tretā etc.[142:1] [Translator’s notes — A. Govindacharya, 1898] [140:2] See note 2, p. 42. [140:3] See notes 1 and 2 p: 65. [141:1] Kṛita-Yuga with Sandhis = 4800 × 360 = 1,728,000 mortal years. Tretā-Yuga do. do. = 3600 × 360 = 1,296,000 do. do. Dvāpara-Yuga do. do. = 2400 × 360 = 864,000 do. do. Kali-Yuga do. do. = 1200 × 360 = 432,000 do. do. Also vide note 29 p: 135. Total. 4,320,000 = a Mahā-Yuga. (Read Vishnu-purāna, I-3). [141:2] The 259th,663rd name of God, derived from the root: ‘Vish, vyāptau.’—‘Yasmād vishtam idam sarvam tasya śaktyā mahātmanaḥ, tasmāt sa proch’yate Vishṇuḥ viśer-dhātoḥ praveśanāt’. (Āditya-purāna) Also ‘Vishṇur vikramaṇād-devaḥ’ (Mahā-bhā; Ud: Par. 69-13. [142:1] See note 1, p. 141.

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Public-domain 1898 English translation and annotations, published before 1931. Reproduced from the historical scan.

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5th–2nd centuries BCE · Zaehner’s estimateBhagavadgītā: estimated composition Prophecy given or recorded

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