Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 9, Verse 19
तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णाम्युत्सृजामि च।
अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन।।
अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन।।
tapāmyaham ahaṁ varṣaṁ nigṛhṇāmyutsṛjāmi ca
amṛtaṁ caiva mṛtyuś ca sad asac cāham arjuna
also searched as "tapamyaham aham varsham nigrihnamyutsrijami cha"
Translation
I give heat, I withhold and send forth the rain; I am immortality and also death, O Arjuna. I am the being and the non-being.
Vāṇi's rendering
I give the sun's heat; I hold and release the rain. I am deathlessness and death, being and non-being.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| तपामिtapāmi | I give heat, I burn — as the sun does |
| अहम्aham | I |
| अहम्ahaṁ | I (repeated, for emphasis) |
| वर्षम्varṣaṁ | the rain |
| निगृह्णामिnigṛhṇāmi | I hold back, I withhold |
| उत्सृजामिutsṛjāmi | I send forth, I release |
| चca | and |
| अमृतम्amṛtaṁ | deathlessness, the undying |
| चca | and (joined with the next word as caiva) |
| एवeva | indeed, truly |
| मृत्युःmṛtyuḥ | death (appears as mṛtyuś before ca) |
| चca | and |
| सत्sat | what is, being — the manifest (appears as sad before the next word) |
| असत्asat | what is not yet, non-being — the unmanifest (appears as asac before ca) |
| चca | and (joined with aham as cāham) |
| अहम्aham | I am |
| अर्जुनarjuna | Arjuna |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9 Verse 19 mean?
Krishna names himself as both sides of every pair — the heat and the rain, the withholding and the giving, deathlessness and death, being and non-being. Nothing stands outside him and works against him. The opposites you experience as fortune and misfortune are one power, seen from two positions.
What is the meaning of tapamyaham aham varsham nigrihnamyutsrijami cha?
I give the sun's heat; I hold and release the rain. Krishna points to the plainest facts of a farmer's year — scorching, drought, downpour — and claims them all. The withholding is not neglect. The same hand that opens the sky is the hand that closes it.
How can Krishna be both immortality and death?
Because death is not the failure of life; it is one of life's motions. Amṛta and mṛtyu are not rivals with Krishna on the kinder side. He is the coming and the going both. This is why Arjuna's dread of causing death loses its foundation here.
What do sat and asat mean in this verse?
Sat is what has come into form and can be seen; asat is what has not, the unmanifest that form comes out of and returns to. Not existence and nothingness — appeared and not-yet-appeared. Krishna is both the visible world and the silence it rises from.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Heat and rain are the same hand. Krishna does not say he sends the good weather and permits the bad; he says he withholds and releases, and both are his doing. Then the pairing widens until it can hold anything — deathlessness and death, being and non-being. There is no second power out there arranging the losses. Arjuna has been dividing the field since the first chapter: my side, their side, what I want, what I dread. Here the division closes. The drought and the harvest come from one source. What arrives in your life today has no enemy behind it.