Bhagavad Gita 8.17 · Krishna
A day of a thousand ages
सहस्रयुगपर्यन्तमहर्यद् ब्रह्मणो विदुः।
रात्रिं युगसहस्रान्तां तेऽहोरात्रविदो जनाः॥
sahasrayugaparyantamaharyad brahmaṇo viduḥrātriṃ yugasahasrāntāṃ te’ahorātravido janāḥ
Those who know Brahma's day lasts a thousand ages, and his night a thousand more, truly know day and night.
What it means
Krishna opens a window onto cosmic time. One day of Brahma, the creator, lasts a thousand yugas, vast ages. His night lasts as long. Those who grasp this, he says, truly understand day and night. Our lives are brief flickers in a breathtakingly long rhythm.
The story
Arjuna's crisis feels like the end of the world. Krishna widens the frame to cosmic scale. Not to make Arjuna's pain small, but to set it within something enormous and patient.
In your life
Look up at the night sky. The light you see left some stars before humans existed. When a worry feels enormous today, step outside and look up for a minute.
Even our biggest days are brief in the cosmos.