Verse 5

⁵Krsna looked at that force, like a sea come over its shore, and at his own city closed in by it, and at his own people beside themselves with fear; ⁶and the Bhagavan Hari, a man for a purpose, thought over what his own descent was for, as it suited that place and that hour. ⁷I will kill this force, gathered here as a weight on the earth, brought together by the Magadha king out of all the rulers of the earth who are under him, ⁸counted out in armies of foot and horse and chariot and elephant. But the Magadha king is not to be killed: he will raise another force and try again. ⁹This descent of mine was made for just this: to take the weight off the earth, to keep the good safe, and to kill the others.

¹⁰I take up another body too, for the guarding of dharma, and to make an end of wrongdoing whenever in time it grows strong.