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And I am the all-devouring Death, and the prosperity of those who are to be prosperous; among the feminine alities (I am) fame, prosperity, speech, memory, intelligence, firmness and forgiveness.

I am death that carries off all, and the birth of all that is to be. Among feminine powers I am fame, prosperity, speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and forbearance.

Krishna holds death and birth in one breath: he is the death that takes away everything and the coming forth of all that will exist. Then he names seven qualities that are grammatically feminine in Sanskrit and were often honoured as goddesses: fame, prosperity or grace (śrī), speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience. Many readers see these as the qualities that make a life admirable. For Arjuna, poised between killing and being killed, the verse is sobering and steadying at once. Death is not outside the divine, and neither are the virtues needed to face it.