Shloka 336
अध्याय १९० — वामदेव-वाम्य-वृत्तान्तः
The Vāmadeva Horses Episode and the Ethics of Promise
त्रैलोक्यं नाशयाम्येक: कृत्स्नं स्थावरजड्रमम् । उस कलिकालमें तीन हिस्सा अधर्म और एक ही हिस्सा धर्म रहता है। प्रलयकाल आनेपर मैं ही अत्यन्त दारुण कालरूप होकर अकेला ही सम्पूर्ण चराचर त्रिलोकीका नाश करता हूँ
trailokyaṁ nāśayāmy ekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ sthāvara-jaḍramam |
The Deity said: “Alone, I bring about the destruction of the entire threefold world—everything, including what is fixed and inert.” In the moral frame implied here, the Lord identifies Himself as the ultimate Time-power: when the age declines and unrighteousness predominates, and when dissolution arrives, it is He alone who, as fierce Time, withdraws all beings and the whole cosmos into destruction.
देव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts divine sovereignty over creation and dissolution: the same supreme power that sustains the worlds also withdraws them at pralaya, acting as Kāla (Time). It frames cosmic destruction not as random violence but as an ordered, inevitable phase of the moral-cosmic cycle, especially when adharma predominates.
A deity is speaking and declares His capacity to annihilate the entire three-world cosmos single-handedly, including immovable and inert existence. The surrounding sense (as reflected in the accompanying Hindi) links this to the degeneration of the age and the arrival of pralaya, when the Lord manifests as fierce Time to end the world-order.