Krishna reveals: 'I am Time (kāla), the great destroyer of the worlds.' Shankaracharya reads kāla as the power of Brahman that governs all temporal existence. Ramanujacharya sees this as the Lord's most fearsome self-identification. Madhva reads Time as the Lord's own activity — Vishnu as kāla exercises absolute control over all temporal processes. Abhinavagupta sees kāla as one of Shiva's most fundamental powers, the dynamic aspect driving all transformation. Vallabha reads it as revealing that the Lord is the reality behind all change. Tilak considers this the most important verse for the karma yogi: the warriors have already been slain, making Arjuna's role purely instrumental. Vivekananda reads it as the starkest declaration of the divine's relationship to change and death. Together, these traditions converge on a truth that is simultaneously terrifying and liberating: the same divine reality that creates and sustains the universe is also the Time that destroys it — and understanding this makes one fearless, because the worst that can happen is already part of God's plan.