TIME I AM DESTROYER OF THE WORLDS

Arjuna saw in that universal form unlimited mouths and unlimited eyes. It was all wondrous. The form was decorated with divine, dazzling ornaments and arrayed in many garbs. He was garlanded gloriously, and there were many scents smeared over His body. All was magnificent, all-expanding, unlimited. This was seen by Arjuna.

Arjuna said: “O Lord of the universe, I see in Your universal body many, many forms—bellies, mouths, eyes—expanded without limit. There is no end, there is no beginning, and there is no middle to all this. Your form, adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs, is difficult to see because of its glaring effulgence, which is fiery and immeasurable like the sun. All the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra along with their allied kings, and Bhīṣma, Droṇa and Karṇa, and all our soldiers are rushing into Your mouths, their heads smashed by Your fearful teeth. I see that some are being crushed between Your teeth as well. I see all people rushing with full speed into Your mouths as moths dash into a blazing fire. O Viṣṇu, I see You devouring all people in Your flaming mouths and covering the universe with Your immeasurable rays. Scorching the worlds, You are manifest. O Lord of lords, so fierce of form, please tell me who You are. I offer my obeisances unto You; please be gracious to me. I do not know what Your mission is, and I desire to hear of it.”

TIME I AM DESTROYER OF THE WORLDS
Compiled by Mohini Devi Dasi

The Blessed Lord said: Time I am, destroyer of the worlds, and I have come to engage all people. With the exception of you [the Pāṇḍavas], all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain. (Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 11.32)

PURPORT: Although Arjuna knew that Kṛṣṇa was his friend and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he was nonetheless puzzled by the various forms exhibited by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he asked further about the actual mission of this devastating force. It is written in the Vedas that the Supreme Truth destroys everything, even Brahmā. Yasya brahme ca kṣatram ca ubhe bhavata odanaḥ/mṛtyur yasyopasecanaṁ ka itthā veda yatra saḥ. Eventually all the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas and everyone else are devoured by the Supreme. This form of the Supreme Lord is an all-devouring giant, and here Kṛṣṇa presents Himself in that form of all-devouring time. Except for a few Pāṇḍavas, everyone who was present in that battlefield would be devoured by Him.

Arjuna was not in favor of the fight, and he thought it was better not to fight; then there would be no frustration. In reply, the Lord is saying that even if he did not fight, every one of them would be destroyed, for that is His plan. If he stopped fighting, they would die in another way. Death cannot be checked, even if he did not fight. In fact, they were already dead. Time is destruction, and all manifestations are to be vanquished by the desire of the Supreme Lord. That is the law of nature.

EVERYTHING IS BEING DESTROYED IN DUE COURSE OF TIME

My dear Lord, Your absolute authority cannot be directly experienced, but one can guess by seeing the activities of the world that everything is being destroyed in due course of time. The force of time is very strong, and everything is being destroyed by something else—just as one animal is being eaten by another animal. Time scatters everything, exactly as the wind scatters clouds in the sky. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.24.65)

PURPORT: The process of destruction is going on according to the law of nature. Nothing within this material world can be permanent, although scientists, philosophers, workers and everyone else are trying to make things permanent. One foolish scientist recently declared that eventually life will be made permanent through science. Some so-called scientists are also trying to manufacture living entities within the laboratory. Thus in one way or another everyone is busy denying the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and rejecting the supreme authority of the Lord. However, the Lord is so powerful that He destroys everything in the form of death. As Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (10.34), mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham: “I am all-devouring death.” The Lord is just like death to the atheists, for He takes away everything they accumulate in the material world. Hiraṇyakaśipu, the father of Prahlāda, always denied the existence of the Lord, and he tried to kill his five-year-old boy due to the boy’s unflinching faith in God. However, in due course of time the Lord appeared as Nṛsiṁhadeva and killed Hiraṇyakaśipu in the presence of his son.

As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.13.47), this killing process is natural. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam: “one animal is food for another animal.” A frog is eaten by a snake, a snake is eaten by a mongoose, and the mongoose is eaten by another animal. In this way the process of destruction goes on by the supreme will of the Lord. Although we do not see the hand of the Supreme Lord directly, we can feel the presence of that hand through the Lord’s process of destruction. We can see the clouds scattered by the wind, although we cannot see how this is being done because it is not possible to see the wind. Similarly, although we do not directly see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we can see that He controls the process of destruction. The destructive process is going on fiercely under the control of the Lord, but the atheists cannot see it.

THE LORD BRINGS MEN TOGETHER AND SEPARATES THEM

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: Canto 1, Chapter Thirteen, Dhṛtarāṣṭra Quits Home

Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira said: O godly personality, I do not know where my two uncles have gone. Nor can I find my ascetic aunt who is grief-stricken by the loss of all her sons.You are like a captain of a ship in a great ocean and you can direct us to our destination. Thus addressed, the godly personality, Devarṣi Nārada, greatest of the philosopher devotees, began to speak.

Śrī Nārada said: O pious King, do not lament for anyone, for everyone is under the control of the Supreme Lord. Therefore all living beings and their leaders carry on worship to be well protected. It is He only who brings them together and disperses them.

As a cow, bound through the nose by a long rope, is conditioned, so also human beings are bound by different Vedic injunctions and are conditioned to obey the orders of the Supreme. As a player sets up and disperses his playthings according to his own sweet will, so the supreme will of the Lord brings men together and separates them.

FEELINGS OF SEPARATION ARE DUE ONLY TO ILLUSORY AFFECTION

O King, in all circumstances, whether you consider the soul to be an eternal principle, or the material body to be perishable, or everything to exist in the impersonal Absolute Truth, or everything to be an inexplicable combination of matter and spirit, feelings of separation are due only to illusory affection and nothing more.

Therefore give up your anxiety due to ignorance of the self. You are now thinking of how they, who are helpless poor creatures, will exist without you.

This gross material body made of five elements is already under the control of eternal time [kāla], action [karma] and the modes of material nature [guṇa]. How, then, can it, being already in the jaws of the serpent, protect others?

ahastāni sahastānām /apadāni catuṣ-padām
phalgūni tatra mahatāṁ / jīvo jīvasya jīvanam
[SB 1.13.47]

Those who are devoid of hands are prey for those who have hands; those devoid of legs are prey for the four-legged. The weak are the subsistence of the strong, and the general rule holds that one living being is food for another.

PURPORT: A systematic law of subsistence in the struggle for existence is there by the supreme will, and there is no escape for anyone by any amount of planning. The living beings who have come to the material world against the will of the Supreme Being are under the control of a supreme power called māyā-śakti, the deputed agent of the Lord, and this daivī māyā is meant to pinch the conditioned souls by threefold miseries, one of which is explained here in this verse: the weak are the subsistence of the strong. No one is strong enough to protect himself from the onslaught of a stronger, and by the will of the Lord there are systematic categories of the weak, the stronger and the strongest. There is nothing to be lamented if a tiger eats a weaker animal, including a man, because that is the law of the Supreme Lord. But although the law states that a human being must subsist on another living being, there is the law of good sense also, for the human being is meant to obey the laws of the scriptures. This is impossible for other animals. The human being is meant for self-realization, and for that purpose he is not to eat anything which is not first offered to the Lord. The Lord accepts from His devotee all kinds of food preparations made of vegetables, fruits, leaves and grains. Fruits, leaves and milk in different varieties can be offered to the Lord, and after the Lord accepts the foodstuff, the devotee can partake of the prasāda, by which all suffering in the struggle for existence will be gradually mitigated. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.26). Even those who are accustomed to eat animals can offer foodstuff, not to the Lord directly, but to an agent of the Lord, under certain conditions of religious rites. Injunctions of the scriptures are meant not to encourage the eaters of animals, but to restrict them by regulated principles.

The living being is the source of subsistence for other, stronger living beings. No one should be very anxious for his subsistence in any circumstances because there are living beings everywhere, and no living being starves for want of food at any place. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira is advised by Nārada not to worry about his uncles’ suffering for want of food, for they could live on vegetables available in the jungles as prasāda of the Supreme Lord and thus realize the path of salvation.

Exploitation of the weaker living being by the stronger is the natural law of existence; there is always an attempt to devour the weak in different kingdoms of living beings. There is no possibility of checking this tendency by any artificial means under material conditions; it can be checked only by awakening the spiritual sense of the human being by practice of spiritual regulations. THE SPIRITUAL REGULATIVE PRINCIPLES, HOWEVER, DO NOT ALLOW A MAN TO SLAUGHTER WEAKER ANIMALS ON ONE SIDE AND TEACH OTHERS PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE. If man does not allow the animals peaceful coexistence, how can he expect peaceful existence in human society? The blind leaders must therefore understand the Supreme Being and then try to implement the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, or Rāma-rājya, is impossible without the awakening of God consciousness in the mass mind of the people of the world.

THE VEDAS ARE THE STOREHOUSE OF KNOWLEDGE

Going to India in the 18. century was called by the Dutch and British colonialists ‘To shake the pagoda‘ it became a phrase, somewhat similar to our modern expression ‘to strike oil”, get rich quick. Besides looting India of its vast amounts of gold and jewels they had found the treasure chest of the ultimate scientific knowledge.

The Vedas are the storehouse of knowledge, both material and spiritual. There are different branches of knowledge in the Vedas, of which astrology (Jyotihshastra, the science of the luminaries) and pathology are two important branches. There is a department of military education (Dhanur-veda), Ayurveda (medical science) etc.

Some scientists study the Vedas, Mahabharata and the Bhagavad-gita and are impressed by them. Unfortunately most of their scientific studies, discoveries and inventions are used for destructive purposes. They sometimes claim to have derived their inspirations and justifications from the Vedas.

One example is Oppenheimer. He invented the atomic bomb and they promptly used it on Japan. He was reading the Vedic scriptures in Sanskrit and is seen quoting Bhagavad-gita fluently.

https://www.indiadivine.org/father-of-the-atomic-bomb-quotes-hindu-scripture-after-first-nuclear-detonation (video)

IN THE FORM OF TIME, THE LORD IS THE KILLER OF EVERYTHING

My dear Dhruva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is ever existing, but in the form of time, He is the killer of everything. He has no beginning, although He is the beginning of everything, nor is He ever exhaustible, although everything is exhausted in due course of time. The living entities are created through the agency of the father and killed through the agency of death, but He is perpetually free of birth and death.

PURPORT: The supreme authority and inconceivable power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be minutely studied from this verse. He is always unlimited. That means that He has no creation or end. He is, however, death (in the form of time), as described in Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, “I am death. I take away everything at the end of life.” Eternal time is also without beginning, but it is the creator of all creatures. The example is given of touchstone, which creates many valuable stones and jewels but does not decrease in power. Similarly, creation occurs many times, everything is maintained, and, after a time, everything is annihilated—but the original creator, the Supreme Lord, remains untouched and undiminished in power. The secondary creation is made by Brahmā, but Brahmā is created by the Supreme Godhead. Lord Śiva annihilates the whole creation, but at the end he is also annihilated by Viṣṇu. Lord Viṣṇu remains. In the Vedic hymns it is stated that in the beginning there is only Viṣṇu and that He alone remains at the end. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: 4.11.19)

An example can help us to understand the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Lord.  IN THE RECENT HISTORY OF WARFARE THE SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD CREATED A HITLER AND, BEFORE THAT, A NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, AND THEY EACH KILLED MANY LIVING ENTITIES IN WAR. But in the end Bonaparte and Hitler were also killed. People are still very much interested in writing and reading books about Hitler and Bonaparte and how they killed so many people in war. Year after year many books are published for public reading regarding Hitler’s killing thousands of Jews in confinement.  BUT NO ONE IS RESEARCHING who killed Hitler and WHO CREATED SUCH A GIGANTIC KILLER OF HUMAN BEINGS. The devotees of the Lord are not much interested in the study of the flickering history of the world. They are interested only in Him who is the original creator, maintainer and annihilator. That is the purpose of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

EVERYONE IS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE TIME FACTOR

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: Canto 5.23.1-8 The Śiśumāra planetary system.

Sukadeva Gosvami explains that the unsleeping, invisible most powerful time factor causes the luminaries to revolve around the polestar without cessation. The time factor is another feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Everyone is under the influence of the time factor, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is so kind and loves His devotee Mahārāja Dhruva so much that He has placed all the luminaries under the control of Dhruva’s planet and has arranged for the time factor to work under him or with his cooperation. Everything is actually done according to the will and direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but to make His devotee Dhruva the most important individual within the universe, the Lord has placed the activities of the time factor under his control.

Some yogīs contemplate this imaginary śiśumāra to be
swimming in the sky the way a dolphin swims in water.

My dear King, the body of the śiśumāra, as thus described, should be considered the external form of Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. MORNING, NOON, AND EVENING one should silently observe the form of the Lord as the Śiśumāra-cakra and worship Him with this mantra:

“O LORD WHO HAS ASSUMED THE FORM OF TIME ! O RESTING PLACE OF ALL THE PLANETS MOVING IN DIFFERENT ORBITS ! O MASTER OF ALL DEMIGODS, O SUPREME PERSON, I OFFER MY RESPECTFUL OBEISANCES UNTO YOU AND MEDITATE UPON YOU.”

• TIME IS AN ALL DEVOURING GIANT • TIME SCATTERS EVERYTHING • EVERYONE IS UNDER THE CONTROL OF TIME • ETERNAL TIME IS WITHOUT BEGINNING AND THE CREATOR OF ALL CREATURES • THE SUPREME LORD IS DEATH IN THE FORM OF TIME • THE LORD HAS ASSUMED THE FORM OF UNSLEEPING, ETERNAL TIME •