In class today, we largely discussed chapter 11 of the Gita, and for good reason. Krishna reveals himself in his (infinite) totality, and evokes an grandiose measure of awe and terror from Arjuna. One passage in particular stuck out to me, however.
"I am time, the destroyer of all; I have come to consume the world. Even without your participation, all the warriors gathered here will die" (11.32).
I think this verse can come across as contradictory on the surface; Krishna seems to be proclaiming the eminent death of all, karma aside ("even without your participation..."). I think this verse is remarkably cohesive with the rest of the Gita, however. Krishna is a human incarnate of Vishnu, one of the gods, and in that sense, is "everything." Therefore, it makes perfect sense for Krishna to claim, "I am time..."
Moreover, if Krishna is time, and time (whether we like it or not) kills us, albeit, some slower or faster than others, it would still follow that Krishna is the destroyer of all. Even that line, although it seems grim, cannot be taken with adherence to the very first chapter, in which Krishna refers to physical, bodily, death, as the shedding of an old coat.
I've read other translations where Krishna is referred to as the supreme personality of the Godhead, and that everyone, with the exception of the Pāṇḍavas, will die. It makes sense that time consumes all, but I wonder why Krishna appeals to natural laws here, i.e. linear time.
ReplyDeleteI think Krishna is trying to make Arjuna understand things through a lense that enables him (Arjuna) to. We know Arjuna is human in the lower nature and his reference to things may be contingent upon a measurement based on time, whereas Krishna can perceive anything through any lenses because it is his nature that creates maya (illusion).
ReplyDeleteI think you mean 'immanent,' not 'eminent.' Everything you all say here is right -- as an avatar, the Krishna who is Arjuna's friend is also, as he shows in chapter 11, a manifestation of a higher reality, from which perspective time (and pretty much everything else we recognize as real) is an illusion. But we can't actually grasp that perspective, only glimpse it, and the sight is awesome/awful.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the passage Dom cites is the line the nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer claimed to have remembered when witnessing the detonation of the first nuclear bomb, in his own translation: "I am become Death, destroyer of nations." While it may well be true that he thought of the verse, the guy standing next to him claims that what he said was: "It worked!"