Verse 11.29

यथा प्रदीप्तं ज्वलनं पतङ्गा

विशन्ति नाशाय समृद्धवेगाः ।

तथैव नाशाय विशन्ति लोकास्-

तवापि वक्त्राणि समृद्धवेगाः ॥

11.29

Transliteration

yathā pradīptaṃ jvalanaṃ pataṅgā

viśanti nāśāya samṛddhavegāḥ |

tathaiva nāśāya viśanti lokās-

tavāpi vaktrāṇi samṛddhavegāḥ ||

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3

Translation

As moths hurriedly rush into a blazing fire for (their own) destruction, so also these creatures hurriedly rush into Thy mouths for (their own) destruction.

From the owner's sheet · +1 more

Word by word

as
blazing
fire
moths

enter
to perish
at full speed

so
too
to perish
enter
the worlds

your
also
mouths
at full speed

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08

Explanation

A second comparison follows, darker than the first. The worlds rush into Krishna's mouths as moths fly at full speed into a flame and perish. The rivers of the previous verse flowed by nature; the moths are drawn by attraction to the very thing that destroys them. Some readers see here an image of beings driven by desire and delusion toward their own end, as the warriors are driven toward the battle. The two images together hold both sides of mortality: the natural return to the source and the blind rush toward ruin.