Time the Destroyer
I am Time, the great destroyer of worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people.
Krishna reveals himself as Time (Kala), the ultimate destroyer. Nothing in the manifest world escapes time's power—all that is born must die. This teaching confronts us with impermanence and mortality, stripping away illusions of permanence. Yet understanding this truth can liberate rather than terrify—when we accept impermanence, we stop clinging and find peace. Death becomes not an enemy but a teacher pointing to what is truly eternal.
I am Time, the great destroyer of worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people. With the exception of you Pandavas, all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain.
This verse, made famous by Oppenheimer, reveals death not as an aberration but as integral to the cosmic order—part of divinity itself.
Bhagavad Gita
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- What the Bhagavad Gita says about grief
In the universal form Krishna identifies himself as Time, the destroyer of worlds. Grief here is not a personal misfortune that has singled you out; it is the ordinary working of the thing holding everything up.