11.32 I am time Krishna speaks
कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्तः
ऋतेऽपि त्वां न भविष्यन्ति सर्वे येऽवस्थिताः प्रत्यनीकेषु योधाः
kālo ’smi loka-kṣhaya-kṛit pravṛiddho
lokān samāhartum iha pravṛittaḥ
ṛite ’pi tvāṁ na bhaviṣhyanti sarve
ye ’vasthitāḥ pratyanīkeṣhu yodhāḥ
I am time, the destroyer of worlds, grown mighty; I have come forth to bring their ending. Even without you, none of these warriors drawn up in the opposing ranks will remain.
Explanation
I am time, the destroyer of worlds.
kālo 'smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt — the line that escaped this book and entered the twentieth century.
And the second half is the part usually left off: even without you, none of these warriors will remain. The answer to what are you doing is that it is already done.
Going further
Word by word
- śhrī-bhagavān uvācha
- the Supreme Lord said
- kālaḥ
- time
- asmi
- I am
- loka-kṣhaya-kṛit
- the source of destruction of the worlds
- pravṛiddhaḥ
- mighty
- lokān
- the worlds
- samāhartum
- annihilation
- iha
- this world
- pravṛittaḥ
- participation
- ṛite
- without
- api
- even
- tvām
- you
- na bhaviṣhyanti
- shall cease to exist
- sarve
- all
- ye
- who
- avasthitāḥ
- arrayed
- prati-anīkeṣhu
- in the opposing army
- yodhāḥ
- the warriors
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Kālo 'smi loka-kṣhaya-kṛit — I am time, the destroyer of worlds.
The line that escaped this book and entered the twentieth century by way of a physicist watching a weapon test. It is usually quoted alone, which changes it. What follows is: even without you, none of these warriors will remain — an answer to Arjuna's specific question about whether his killing makes the difference he fears it does.
Kāla means both time and death, and the ambiguity is not resolvable. What is being claimed is not that a god destroys, but that duration itself does.