Bhagavad Gita 4.8
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् । धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṃ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām | dharma-saṃsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge ||
Translation
For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evildoers, and for the establishment of dharma, I take birth from age to age.
Reflection
What in you have you been protecting that requires the destruction of something else to stand?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Four
Three purposes, named in order. Protect the good. Destroy the evildoer. Establish dharma. Yuge yuge, age to age. The verse pairs with 4.7 the way a thesis pairs with a chorus. The middle line is the one that lands hardest by modern hearing: vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. The Gita refuses the soft reading. There is destruction in the package, not only protection. Shankara: the destruction is the form love takes when the wicked have made love of any other shape impossible. The line is not approving violence; it is naming the cost of restoration.