Sanskrit
दंष्ट्राकरालानि च ते मुखानि दृष्ट्वैव कालानलसन्निभानि । दिशो न जाने न लभे च शर्म प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास ॥
daṃṣṭrākarālāni ca te mukhāni dṛṣṭvaiva kālānalasannibhāni diśo na jāne na labhe ca śarma prasīda deveśa jagannivāsa
Translation
Like Time's destroying flames I see Thy teeth, upstanding, spread within expanded jaws; nought know I anywhere, no shelter find; Mercy, O God! refuge of all the worlds!
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
“Kālānala,” the fire of Time/Death, appears here as a simile for the fanged mouths — anticipating, seven verses early, the direct self-identification Krishna makes in verse 32 (“kālo’smi,” I am Time). Arjuna has, without yet being told, already intuited what he’s looking at. The verse ends on the chapter’s first outright plea for mercy (prasīda) — description has given way to supplication, and it won’t fully let up until Krishna agrees, in verse 49, to stop. Kāla-anala — “the fire of Time” — appears here as a simile for the fanged mouths, seven verses before Krishna’s direct kālo ‘smi. Arjuna has already intuited what he is looking at. The verse ends on the chapter’s first outright prasīda, “be gracious.””
Study deeper
Word by word
- daṃṣṭrākarālāni ca te mukhāniदंष्ट्राकरालानि च ते मुखानि
- your mouths, fearsome with tusks (daṃṣṭrā-karālāni + ca + te + mukhāni)
- dṛṣṭvaiva kālānalasannibhāniदृष्ट्वैव कालानलसन्निभानि
- seeing [them] like the fires of Time (dṛṣṭvā + eva + kāla-anala-sannibhāni)
- diśo na jāne na labhe ca śarmaदिशो न जाने न लभे च शर्म
- I know not the directions, and find no refuge (diśaḥ + na + jāne + na + labhe + ca + śarma)
- prasīda deveśa jagannivāsaप्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास
- be gracious, O Lord of gods, abode of the world (prasīda + deva-īśa + jagat-nivāsa)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Back in verse 3, Arjuna asked to verify by sight something he’d only had by report. Here the direction runs the other way: he arrives, through raw perception alone, at an identification — this is Time, this is Death — seven verses before Krishna ever says the words “kālo’smi” aloud in verse 32. Direct experience gets there first; the verbal confirmation only catches up afterward, closing a loop the chapter opened on the opposite footing.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Trust it when direct experience leads you to a conclusion before anyone has said it to you in words — sometimes perception arrives at the truth first, and the explicit confirmation is only catching up to what you already sensed.
Professional
- When your gut read of a system, gained from direct exposure, reaches a conclusion before the metrics or a report confirm it, don't discount it just because the official confirmation hasn't landed yet — direct experience sometimes gets there first.
Family & Social
- If you sense something true about a person close to you well before they say it in words, trust that intuition as real data — direct experience of someone often arrives at the truth before their own confirmation catches up to it.
Ask yourself
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