A section from the journey

"Whenever Dharma Declines, I Come"

Now Krishna reveals himself. Whenever dharma declines and wrong grows strong, he says, the divine takes a body and comes, age after age, to set things right. This is the idea of avatara, the descent. Then, at Arjuna's wish, Krishna shows his cosmic form, vast and blazing, and names himself Time, the gatherer of worlds. Arjuna trembles, and learns who has been guiding his chariot.

Until now Krishna has spoken as a wise and steady friend, guiding Arjuna's heart. But there is more to him than Arjuna yet knows. In the fourth chapter he begins to tell who he truly is, and the song rises into awe.

He speaks of the order called , the right way of things, which you have followed through this whole journey. Whenever that order grows weak in the world, Krishna says, and cruelty and wrong rise up in its place, the divine does not stay far away and watch. It acts.

"When Righteousness / Declines, O Bharata! when Wickedness / Is strong, I rise, from age to age, and take / Visible shape, and move a man with men..."

This descent of the divine into a body has a name. It is called , which means "a coming down," a crossing from the unseen into our world. The divine takes a form and walks among us to set right what has gone wrong.

We have already met one such descent. Rama, whose long story we followed, is held to be a coming-down of Vishnu. And here on the chariot is another, for Krishna is speaking of himself. The friend at Arjuna's side is the divine in human shape.

Then Arjuna grows bold. He asks to see Krishna not as a friend, but as he truly is. Krishna grants him a special inner eye, for ordinary eyes could not bear the sight. And what Arjuna sees breaks open his whole idea of the world.

He sees a form with no edge and no end, blazing brighter than a thousand suns rising at once, holding all the worlds and all beings within it. It is wondrous and it is terrible. Then Krishna speaks a line that has echoed for ages, naming the deepest truth of that vast form.

"I am death, the destroyer of the worlds, fully developed, and I am now active about the overthrow of the worlds..."

Some translators render that word as Time rather than death, the great Time that gathers all things to their close at last. Either way, Arjuna trembles. He has glimpsed the power that holds the worlds, and it is more than a heart can hold. He bows low and begs to see once more the kind and familiar face of his friend. Krishna, gentle again, returns to his human form and calms him.

One honest note belongs here, so that we do not read a later idea back into this moment. Many today know a famous list of ten great descents of Vishnu, the . That list took its shape later, in the age of the Puranas, and it varies from place to place. Here at the epics, only Rama and Krishna are named as descents. We will meet the fuller story of the ten in its own later age.

Arjuna asked to see his friend as he truly was, and what he saw was almost too great to bear. Have you ever glimpsed something so vast, in the night sky or in a quiet moment, that it made you feel small and full of wonder at once? What did that largeness stir in you?