The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 14-1: Swami Krishnananda.
Friday 17, July 2026, 18:30.
Books:
Bhagavad Gita
The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 14-1: Swami Krishnananda.
An Exposition of the First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita
Discourse 14: The Coming of God as an Incarnation - 1
Swami Krishnananda.
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Discourse 14: The Coming of God as an Incarnation -1.
The role of the divine immanence in the processes of this world, which we were trying to discuss yesterday, is effected by the omniscience of this presence through its Incarnation that takes place at that moment when it is felt necessary. The phenomenon of divine Incarnation is something which religious philosophy has not been able to understand clearly. What exactly is the Incarnation? How does it take place? We shall not be able to understand what it is because no one can understand the way in which God works. The coming of God, if it is what we understand by Incarnation, is something known to God only. We may attempt, from our own side, to find a meaning in this occurrence, but however much we may stretch our imagination and reasoning capacity, its meaning will not be clear to us.
How does God come, when does God come, and why does God come? These are hard things for us. We know, as it is assured us in the Bhagavadgita and in the scriptures of the world, that God is the friend of man, the saviour of humanity, and the benefactor of the whole of creation. It is said in all religions that God is the supreme friend of every created being. The final succour of everything mortal is in its relationship to the immortal, as the extent of our life in this world is conditioned by the extent of our relationship with the vitality that is in us. As long as the vitality operates in us in a meaningful relation with our living process, we shall be alive. When this relationship gets thinned out, we become feeble; we become senile and unable to act, both physically and mentally. When this relationship is snapped, we become corpses, nothings, insignificant existences.
God's coming is an effect, a response, as it were, to the call of man as such. A crucial circumstance arises in the very living conditions of mankind. It is not the problem of any single person; it is not a little man that is calling God, it is a big man that calls. You may remember that in one of our earlier sessions we had occasion to conclude that perhaps the whole of mankind is one man, that there are no 'many people' in this world. The total man is like the organism of humanity, and the redeeming forces in the organism begin to unleash their energy when there is some threat dealt by the intrusion of elements that are extraneous, inorganic, and toxic – toxic intrusions into the very purpose of creation.
At present, creation at the level of humanity may have to be dealt with by forces which maintain the organism in a stable manner. If a little thorn enters the sole of our foot, living and sustaining forces in the body are released into action by the organisation of the whole body. There is a governmental system, as it were, in an organism, in a living whole, and when that threat of an intrusion of any kind of extraneous element is felt, necessary forces for redeeming the organism from that kind of threat are released. The extent of the powers that are so released for effecting this remedial process depends also on the extent of the threat and the danger ahead. We do not have to manufacture a machine gun to drive out a mosquito. We have a little instrument for that. And so is the case with any kind of encounter in this world.
The coming of God, called the Avataras, especially in Indian tradition, has been in different forms. In Indian scriptures, in the epics and the Puranas, we are told that Avataras have been many. Ten of them have been mentioned as of primary importance among the many others which are said to be countless in number, and the ten Avataras are of different categories. They have not all assumed the same form, and they did not come for the same purpose. The kind of action that is expected perhaps decides the type of Incarnation that is summoned by the circumstances, and it is believed that the ten Incarnations of Maha Vishnu, the redeeming, sustaining force of the cosmos, are illustrations. Truth is, in a way, an inwardness of fact. It is hidden in the cave of the heart. This is how we are sometimes told about it in the Upanishads and other scriptures. Those who have read the background of the coming of these Avataras will know how they acted under given conditions and what were the circumstances that necessitated the coming of those Incarnations.
The cry of man will be heard by God, but it will be heard only to the extent of the intensity of the call. As I mentioned already, the need of the hour, the kind of the need of the hour, will determine the type of the coming and the extent of the help that we require. The whole sky does not fall on our head when it is only a little skirmish. The Puranas are illustrations here on this point. A threat to the solidarity of the whole of mankind need not necessarily mean that every man in the world is being threatened. When a toxin enters the body of a person, it need not enter every part of the body. From head to foot it need not come and attack the system. The threat may come from any corner, and the direction of this coming or the location of its contact with the organism is not important. What is coming is important. You can imagine the gravity of the situation when different kinds of toxic elements threaten the system. A little piece of thorn in the foot is one example, but a snake bite, even if it is on the same spot, is of a greater consequence. A scorpion sting is of consequence, though it need not necessarily mean that the entire body is attacked. We remember at once what is to be done when such an event takes place.
Thus, the threat of the welfare of mankind need not necessarily mean that the whole Earth is attacked from one corner to another corner. It may be a little part of the widespread humanity that is threatened, but the important aspect of it is: What is it that is threatened?
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