यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत । अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥
yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata | abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmy aham ||
Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises — I project Myself forth. The divine responds to every crisis.
Word by word (3)
- yadā yadā hi dharmasya glāniḥ bhavati
- — whenever and wherever there is a decline of dharma · Yadā yadā = whenever and wherever (emphatic repetition expressing universality across time and place). Hi = verily, certainly. Dharmasya = of dharma (the cosmic order, righteousness, right functioning of existence). Glāniḥ = decline, exhaustion, diminishment (from glai = to be weary/faint). Glāni implies a gradual wearing down — not sudden collapse but progressive depletion of the principle of right order.
- abhyutthānam adharmasya
- — and a rising up of adharma · Abhyutthāna = rising up (abhi+ut+sthāna — rising from below upward, a rising that overcomes). Adharma = the opposite of dharma — disorder, injustice, the fragmentation of right order. The two conditions together: dharma declining + adharma rising. Not one alone but both simultaneously — the tipping point.
- tadā ātmānaṃ sṛjāmi aham
- — then I project/create Myself · Tadā = then (responding to yadā yadā). Ātmānam = Myself (the Self). Sṛjāmi = I project, I create, I emit (from sṛj = to release, to create — the same root as creation). Aham = I. Not 'I am born' passively but 'I create/project Myself' — an active, sovereign self-manifestation. The divine responds to the crisis with creative self-expression.
Whenever and wherever there is a decline of dharma and a rising up of adharma — O Arjuna, then I project Myself forth.
A modern analogy
When a system tips toward failure — when what sustains life is being destroyed and what destroys it is rising — something corrective emerges. In biology: immune response. In ecosystems: succession and recovery. V7 describes this at the cosmic level: the divine principle itself responds to the crisis by manifesting more directly.
Take with you
- Yadā yadā — the principle is universal, not a one-time event. It applies whenever and wherever the conditions arise.
- Both conditions must be present: dharma's decline AND adharma's rise — the tipping point of imbalance.
- Sṛjāmi ātmānam — 'I create Myself' — the divine response is creative, active, sovereign.
- This verse gives cosmic context to the Gita itself: Arjuna's crisis IS the context for the divine teaching.
V7 is among the most celebrated verses in the entire Gita — the declaration of the avatāra principle. After V6 established the 'how' (through ātma-māyā, freely), V7 gives the 'when': yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati — whenever dharma declines. The verse functions at multiple levels: cosmological (the divine responds to cosmic cycles of decline), historical (specific incarnations at specific historical moments — Rāma, Krishna, etc.), psychological (the divine principle manifests more strongly in the individual when ego-structures/adharma become dominant), social (communities and movements arise to restore order when injustice rises). Shankaracharya reads the verse in its full metaphysical scope: the response is not arbitrary but follows the cosmic law of balance — glāni (decline) creates the occasion; the divine responds with sṛṣṭi (creative manifestation).
Advaita lens
Shankaracharya notes that from the Advaita perspective, 'dharmasya glāniḥ' points not only to external social disorder but to the internal decline of discriminative wisdom (viveka) in individuals and societies. When the knowledge that Ātman = Brahman is lost and ego-fragmentation (adharma at the metaphysical level) predominates, the teaching (avatāra as dharma-restoration) naturally arises. The Gita itself is such a manifestation — it appears in the moment of maximum crisis (Ch.1) to restore the knowledge of the eternal Self.
Bhakti lens
V7 is the bhakta's most intimate assurance: the Divine appears when dharma declines — which means the Divine is always watching, always present to the state of the world, always ready to intervene out of love for the devotees. Tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmy aham (I project Myself forth) is not a mechanical response but a personal act of divine love: the Lord cannot bear to see the sādhus (good ones) in distress. For the bhakta who prays 'come to me, Lord' — V7 is the answer: the Divine comes not only when called but whenever the world needs it. The avatāra is the Supreme's own love made visible and tangible in history. Every avatāra tradition is a testimony to this: the Divine's love for beings is so complete that it takes form within the world to protect them.
Karma-Yoga lens
Tilak used V7 as the central justification for engaged political action. If the divine principle itself responds to social injustice by manifesting corrective force, then the karma-yogi's obligation is to be that force in their own sphere. Withdrawal is adharmic when adharma is rising. Vivekananda: 'Feel for the misery of others with a hundred hands and help.' V7 is the cosmic warrant for engaged compassionate action in the world.
Public-domain translations (5) compare all →
Whenever there is decay of righteousness and rise of unrighteousness, O Bharata, then I manifest Myself. [1]
Whenever there is a decline of righteousness and rise of unrighteousness, O Bharata, then I project Myself forth. [4]
Whenever there is a decline of virtue and an insurrection of vice and injustice in the world, then do I come forth. [6]
When righteousness Withers away, and lawlessness uprises, O! then I draw Myself forth! [7]
Whenever there is decay of righteousness, and there is exaltation of unrighteousness, then I myself come forth. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
For the protection of the good, destruction of wickedness, establishment of dharma — I come, age after age.
Though unborn, imperishable, Lord of all — I come into being through My own Māyā. Divine birth is free, not compelled.
A blind king asks what happened on the battlefield — and the Gita begins.
I am Time, the world-destroyer — even without you, none of these warriors shall survive; they are already slain!
Duryodhana lists his greatest champions — and every name carries its own tragic irony.
I would rather be killed than kill them — a statement of love that goes beyond self-preservation.