Uplifting Dharma

From Discourses by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham (4.7)

“Whenever righteousness goes down or there is harm to dharma, when unlawfulness, unrighteousness or ignorance rises on the planet and knowledge goes down, I come back again and again, to uplift knowledge, to uplift dharma, righteousness. ”

That one consciousness which has been the guiding force, which has been bringing up the knowledge, time and again, is Krishna . “In every age I am born, to uplift the knowledge again.” This is the whole concept of avatar. It means ‘descending of the supreme consciousness’. That one consciousness which was a Guru to Vivasvan, which was Sri Ram, Sri Krishna, the same consciousness in various places, in various forms, has come to the planet to uplift people time to time.

paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge (4.8)

“In every age, I come back again on the planet to establish dharma, to establish righteousness, to establish the good, to show the path and to uplift good people and to destroy the bad ones.” In these few sentences, Krishna gave two ideas.