1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 11 - Viswarupa Darsana Yoga - Sloka 32

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of Bhagavad Gita published by Ramakrishna Mission

The Lord Embodied as Time

1 Gita Sloka  every day - Chapter 11 - Viswarupa Darsana Yoga - Sloka 32

Kishora from Chicago

Shri Bhagavan Uvacha

Kala asmi lokakshaya kruta pravrddhah lokan sam ahartum iha pravruttah I

Rte api tvam na bhavi syanti sarve ye avasthitah pratyani keshu yodhah II sloka 32

कालः अस्मि लोकक्षय कृत् प्रव्र्द्धः लोकान् सम् आहर्तुं इह प्रवृत्तः I 

ऋते अपि त्वं न भवि स्यन्ति सर्वे ये अवस्थितः प्रत्यानि केषु योधाः II श्लोक 32

The Blessed Lord said

I am the world destroying Time now engaged in wiping out the world. Even without you the warriors arrayed in hostile armies shall not live. 

In spite of his life long companionship with Shri lrishna, what Arjuna has come to know of him is very little and what remains to be known is much. Hence, rises the question, "Tell me who you are." The answer "I am the mighty world destroying Time" is one among the numerous definitions of Iswara. He is known as Mahakala. This answer solves the 

immediate puzzle in the mind of Arjuna.

All events in nature get buried in Time. Relentlessly and constantly it is consuming everything. Again it is time that measures all events. As Akasa contains all manifested things in itself, time contains all events or causation in itself. As one ascends a hill, one sees the ups and downs below merging into a vast expanse. Similarly in the infinitude of time all the happenings in the universe get swallowed. This Time is verily Iswara. 

"I know not your purpose", is the frightened inquiry of Arjuna. The Lord deals with that mystery. He says he is intent on wiping out the world. Death is in fact taking place ceaselessly. When it is scattered and spread out, it is called the ;aw of nature; but when it is concentrated, it is called a catastrophe. The Lord has this work of extermination done in both the ways - severally and collectively; extensively and intensively. The Mahabharata war is an instance of his intensive destruction of mankind. Whenever a need  for it arises he does it very effectively. He truly adores God who sees his hand at work in all destructions small and great. Nothing in the world is terrible to the knower of the ways of the Lord.

Arjuna is given to understand now that the destruction of Bhishma, Drona and Karna is inevitable. He who did not want to be the cause of death of the venerable ones, realises now that it is not possible for man to avert the design of the Lord. Arjuna's eagerness to take revenge on Karna is now shorn of its personal poignancy and spite. 

It is certain that these men of might are going to perish independent of Arjuna's instrumentality. Why then should he at all engage himself in this carnage? The necessity for it is explained further.