Bhagavad Gita 10.34
मृत्युः सर्वहरश्चाहमुद्भवश्च भविष्यताम् | कीर्तिः श्रीर्वाक्च नारीणां स्मृतिर्मेधा धृतिः क्षमा ||
mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham udbhavaś ca bhaviṣyatām | kīrtiḥ śrīr vāk ca nārīṇāṁ smṛtir medhā dhṛtiḥ kṣamā ||
Translation
I am the all-seizing death and the origin of all that is to come. Among the feminine I am fame, fortune, speech, memory, intelligence, firmness, patience.
Reflection
Which of memory, intellect, firmness, patience needs reclaiming first?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Ten
Death and the seven feminines. Krishna is death the all-seizing and the source of all that will yet come into being. Within the kind that bears feminine names, He is fame, beauty, speech, memory, intellect, firmness, patience. The verse places two extremes inside one couplet. The destroyer and the source of the future. The same arc the chapters have been making at every scale. And then the seven feminine qualities, named by their goddess-words, give the listener a cluster of inward strengths to recognise. Memory and intellect, firmness and patience, are not external possessions. They are vibhutis appearing inside the practitioner. The list keeps coming back to the listener's own life. The catalogue is not for browsing. It is for using when the mind drifts and a known form is needed to bring it back.