Gita 11.32 Question about the identity of the familiar refers to the unfamiliar within the familiar

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thank you 15 onwards till verse 31, Arjuna has been describing the Vishwaroopa that he has seen. And as he is noting and verbalizing various features of the Vishwaroopa, he sees a feature of it which he has not even heard of before, that is the Kaalaroopa.

So when Krishna had earlier revealed his Vishwaroopa to Duryodhana in the Kuru assembly, at that time, he did not reveal his Kaalaroopa. So, Arjuna has heard about the Viratroopa, or the Vishwaroopa specifically, and actually he had a desire to see the Vishwaroopa, but he had not heard about the Kaalaroopa. So that's why, at the previous verse, he asks the question, आख्या हिमे को भवानु ग्रणूपो Who are you, O Lord? I am not able to… नहिज्यां प्रजाणामि तव प्रवरत्यम् So he says that, आख्या हिमे को भवानु ग्रणूपो Who are you of years of form? नमोस्तुते देववरप्रसाद विज्ञातु विच्चामि भुवन्तमाध्यम् I desire to know who you are.

I offer my obeisances to you. So the previous question contains a paradox, because there is both identification and enquiry. Normally, if we meet someone, if we know that person, when we identify that person, we won't ask them who you are.

And if we ask who you are, that means that we don't know who they are. But in the previous verse when Arjuna says, आख्या हिमे को भवानु ग्रणूपो नमोस्तुते देववरप्रसाद विज्ञातु विज्ञातु विच्चामि भुवन्तमाध्यम् नहीं प्रजानामि दवः प्रवृद्धिम् So, he actually not only identifies him as Deva, देववरप्रसीद देववर means the greatest of the gods. So he is identifying him as the supreme being.

But then, he is asking, who are you? विज्ञातु विच्चामि भुवन्तमाध्यम् So I wish to know who you are. भवानु ग्रणूपो आख्या हिमे Please describe. But what does that mean? He knows that this is God, but he doesn't know which form of God it is, because he has never heard of a form like this.

So, if we had a friend who was participating in, say, a drama or a fancy dress competition, and then they had taken a form, they had assumed a dress or a costume, which we couldn't identify. So, we would, in that case, name the person and also enquire, enquire, who are you? So, that means, we know who it is, but at the same time, in the specific role they are playing, we don't know who it is. So, that's how it is for Arjuna over here.

When he knows that this is actually Krishna, earlier he has said also this is Vishnu, बश्यामि विष्वेश्वर विश्वरुप, he knows that this is Vishnu, who is manifesting his Vishwaroopa. But still, he is seeing a feature of the Vishwaroopa that he has never heard of before. It has never seen before.

That's why he is asking, who are you? And then that's why when Arjuna, when the Supreme Lord answers, he doesn't say, I am Vishwaroop, he doesn't say, I am Vishnu, because he also understands that question, who are you? So, if we are going to ask a friend, who are you? The friend understands, obviously, you know, I am your friend, but then you are asking, okay, what role are you playing? What is this costume? Who is the character whom you are depicting? So like that, this Arjuna's question is specific about, who is it that is being, which feature are you revealing, the feature which is, which looks so ghastly, Ugra Roopa, he described how all the warriors are entering into the mouth of Vishwaroop and everybody is, everybody is dying in a very brutal way, Chur Nitya Ruddhamang, it is described that the heads are crashing against the mouth and the heads are getting caught in the teeth and the blood is flowing about as the collision occurs and the head gets smashed, so it's a very gruesome looking sight, that's why he is asking, who is this particular, who are you? So just like, when Lakshmi Devi sees Narsimha in a especially fierce mood, Bhagavatam, 7th Canto is described that even Lakshmi Devi is not able to, what to speak of, pacify, even identify, she knows, of course, this is Narsimha, but she is not able to, what is this particular form of my Lord, so it's like that and the Lord answers specifically his question by saying, Kaalos Milokakshe Praroddho, so Vyasadev also points to this double point, when he says, he is saying Shri Bhagwanuvacha and then he says Kaalosmi, so it's Bhagwan, I am saying, but Bhagwan is not saying, I am Bhagwanosmi, I thought he is not saying Shri Kaalavvacha, Kaalos Milokakshe Praroddho, he keeps this consistent address, Shri Bhagwanuvacha, as to who is speaking, so it's understood that this is Bhagwan, but Bhagwan is manifesting a particular feature that has not been manifested before and that is the question of Arjuna and accordingly, Shri Bhagwan when he answers, in his self-identification he talks about, how I am time, Kaalosmi, Lokakshe Praroddho, Lokakshe, Kshe is to destroy, Loka is the world, Lokakshe Praroddho, I have come to destroy the worlds, time has, the word time itself has many meanings, the concept of time is actually very complex when it comes to philosophy of science or philosophy in general, within science time is considered to be just another feature, another dimension, like we have length, breadth and height, like that it's time, but Einstein when he postulated the idea of space-time as one integral feature of the existence, he also recognized that time is different from the other coordinates within space, such as length, breadth and height, because in length, breadth and height we can go both forward and backward, I can go up and go down in the height of something, but in time we cannot go back, we can only go forward, so in that same time is something which is quite mysterious, what is it exactly, so here Krishna, in general there are two views of things, there is the ontological view of things and there is the functional view of things, functional means how some things function and ontology means what they actually are, ontology is the study of the nature of existence, so most of science in today's world is functional, it's not ontological, that means what thing, what matter is, what the world actually is, science doesn't explore that, because it is too complex, because there are two different theories, there is quantum physics and there is relativity and both of them have very different visions of what the world is, and because both work at different areas of the universe, in different fields of functioning, so both are considered valid and neither is considered to be one authoritative explanation for everything, and since both of them are not easily reconcilable, so both are accepted and science moves onward largely in a functional way, not inquiring so much about what is the actual nature of things, but basically nature is inquiring only about the working of things, and here the Bhagavad Gita talks about the functional aspect of time, when it says in the ontological aspect, it says that when Kalosmi, when Shri Bhagwan is saying Kalosmi, that means what is time, time is God himself, so ontologically time is God, that's the identification which the Bhagavad Gita offers, and functionally the Bhagavad Gita says that time is the destroyer of the worlds, so what does this mean literally, when we say time is God or Kalosmi, what it means is that it's not that Krishna is reduced to time, but rather that means when Krishna is reduced to time means that we say Krishna exists only as time and there is no self-existence of Krishna, not like that, Krishna also exists and time also exists, but rather we see time as an energy of God, so the omnipotence of God is manifest through the irresistibility of time, there's a time when it moves forward, nobody can stop it from moving forward, when a person's time comes then they have to die and whatever they do they can't stop their death, so that irresistibility of the flow of time is a manifestation of the omnipotence of God and in that sense Kalosmi, so time has all the three features, by time things come into existence, by time things grow and by time things go out of existence, they're destroyed and Krishna has talked about this earlier, he has talked about how I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all things, in this particular feature of Kalarupa however, the focus of the identification is on the destruction, why? Because the war is taking place, the war is going to be the arena of destruction and the Kalarupa, Kala is as a time, as an energy, brings about all three things, through it creation happens, maintenance happens, destruction happens, specifically the Kala that is manifested on the Kurukshetra war is for the purpose of destruction and that's why the identification there is Kalosmi Lokakshakatravrttu and Lokansamahartamihapravrttahar Samahartham, actually all the people who are assembled here, they will be destroyed and Rtepitvamna Bhavishyanti Sarve, Rtepi, Rtepi means except for, except for you, so Mahabharata, quite often the singular or the one person reference is used for all the five Pandavas because all five often work as one unit, so here although it is Rtepitvamna Bhavishyanti Sarve, the word is used, we can say that Krishna and Arjuna are speaking, so it refers to Arjuna but the Acharya has explained that it refers to, it's an inclusive reference to all the Pandavas, so except for the Pandavas everyone will be killed, Rtepitvamna Bhavishyanti Sarve, all those are assembled here, they will all be killed, in one sense Krishna is offering Arjuna the prophecy of victory, what Sanjay offers at the end of the battle, at the end of the Bhagavad Gita when he says that that prophecy is based on what Krishna has said over here and thus now the word Rte is also talked about another sense, Rtepi means except for you, so Acharya said it can also mean without you, that means Krishna is telling Arjuna that even if you don't fight, don't think that you will be able to save the Kauravas from death, everybody is just trying to die and they will die with you or without you and if you take this meaning of without you, even without you Rtepitvamna Bhavishyanti Sarve, except for you, even if you don't fight, still they will die, then the next verse, this call actually flows in a smooth cohesion where Krishna is telling Arjuna, therefore you become an instrument and fight, so that which is described, if you become a part of it,.