Pauranic · पौराणिकMantra

Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya

Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises, I bring myself forth. Bhagavad Gita 4.7.

Bhagavad Gita 4.7edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत । अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmy aham

Read in another script

No verified recitation yet. We publish audio only with a named reciter and a recorded licence, rather than files of unknown provenance.

Meaning

Whenever dharma weakens and adharma rises up, Bharata, then I bring myself forth.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Anushtubh — four lines of eight syllables, printed here as two. The doubled yadā yadā should not be rushed; the repetition is doing the work. Glānir ends in a visarga-like r before bhavati; in recitation it joins to the next word rather than stopping.

Repetitions: 3 · 11
Time: brahma muhurta

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Word by word

यदा यदाyadā yadā: whenever, on each occasion thatMW1899-CDSL p.844
हिhi: indeedMW1899-CDSL p.1297
धर्मस्यdharmasya: of dharma, of right order(gen. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.510
ग्लानिःglāniḥ: decline, weakening(nom. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.374
भारतbhārata: O descendant of Bharata (Arjuna)(voc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.753
अभ्युत्थानम्abhyutthānam: rising up, ascendancy(nom. sg. n.)MW1899-CDSL p.78
अधर्मस्यadharmasya: of adharma, of disorder(gen. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.20
तदाtadā: thenMW1899-CDSL p.434
आत्मानम्ātmānam: myself(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.135
सृजामिsṛjāmi: I send forth, I bring into being(1st sg. pres.)MW1899-CDSL p.1245

Glosses are confirmed against a Sanskrit–English dictionary; the reference after each entry names the edition consulted.

Context

The verse on which the whole doctrine of avatara rests. It is a conditional, not a promise of a single event: yadā yadā, "whenever", repeated, describes something recurring rather than something that happened once. Sṛjāmy aham is worth reading carefully — sṛj is to emit or send forth, and the object is ātmānam, oneself. Not "I am born" but "I bring myself forth", which is why the next verse can go on to state the purpose without contradiction. Bhārata is a vocative addressed to Arjuna, as a descendant of Bharata.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

chhanda: Anushtubh
devata: Krishna

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Knowledge (jnana)Dhyana (meditation)

Classified as Pauranic — From the Puranas. Most widely recited deity mantras belong here. Basis for this classification.

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