Bhagavad Gita 9.19
Spoken by Krishna · Verse 19 of 34
तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णाम्युत्सृजामि च | अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन ||१९||
tapāmy aham ahaṃ varṣaṃ nigṛhṇāmy utsṛjāmi ca | amṛtaṃ caiva mṛtyuś ca sad asac cāham arjuna || 19 ||
I give heat, withhold and release rain — I am immortality and death, being and non-being, O Arjuna.
Word by word (3)
- tapāmi aham ahaṃ varṣaṃ nigṛhṇāmi utsṛjāmi ca
- — I give heat; I withhold the rain and I send it forth · tapāmi = I give heat (√tap = to heat, to shine; tapāmi = first person singular present — 'I shine, I give heat'; the sun's heat is the divine's own tapas/heat). aham = I (emphatic). varṣam = rain (varṣa = rain, the rainy season). nigṛhṇāmi = I withhold (ni + √grah = to seize, to hold back; nigṛhṇāmi = 'I hold back, I restrain'). utsṛjāmi = I release, I send forth (ut + √sṛj = to release, to emit; utsṛjāmi = 'I send forth, I release'). ca = and. V19's first half: the divine identifies as the two fundamental weather-phenomena — heat (sun's radiation = tapāmi) and rain (withheld: nigṛhṇāmi + released: utsṛjāmi). The ancient Indian understanding of the cosmic cycle: the sun evaporates water (tapāmi), clouds form, rain is withheld (nigṛhṇāmi) and then released (utsṛjāmi) to nourish the earth. The divine IS this entire process — from solar heat through cloud-formation to rainfall. This is the natural-world dimension of the divine's cosmic presence, extending V16-V18's ritual and relational identifications to the meteorological/natural domain.
- amṛtam ca eva mṛtyuḥ ca sat asat ca aham arjuna
- — I am immortality and also death — being and non-being, O Arjuna · amṛtam = immortality (a = not; mṛta = death; amṛta = deathless, immortal; amṛtam = immortality, the deathless — also the amṛta/ambrosia that the gods drink; the divine as the principle of deathlessness). ca eva = and also (ca = and; eva = also, indeed). mṛtyuḥ = death (mṛtyu = death — from √mṛ = to die; death as a cosmic principle). ca = and. sat = being, existence (sat = that which IS, real being — from √as = to be; sat = the existent, the real, what truly is). asat = non-being (a = not; sat = being; asat = non-being, non-existence, what is unreal). ca = and. aham = I. arjuna = O Arjuna (vocative). V19's second half: four more cosmic polarities — amṛta (immortality) AND mṛtyu (death); sat (being) AND asat (non-being). The divine encompasses all four poles: deathlessness AND death, existence AND non-existence. This is the most comprehensive possible statement of divine totality: even the opposites — life and death, being and nothing — are within the divine. The sat-asat (being and non-being) pair particularly: the divine is BOTH the existent (sat = the manifest world, what is) AND the non-existent (asat = what is not, the unmanifest, the void). This includes the Upaniṣadic description of Brahman as 'neither existent nor non-existent' (na asat, na sat — Ṛgveda 10.129) — here the Gita takes the bold step of saying the divine IS BOTH.
- sat-asat — being and non-being as the ultimate polarity the divine encompasses
- — V19's sat-asat (being and non-being) places the divine beyond the most fundamental ontological distinction — encompassing both what IS and what IS NOT · The sat-asat (being-non-being) pair is philosophically the most extreme polarity in V19. In Indian philosophy: sat (sattā = being, existence) and asat (non-being, absence) are the fundamental ontological categories. Brahman is classically described as sat-cit-ānanda (being-consciousness-bliss) — making sat a positive attribute of Brahman. Yet V9.19 says the divine is BOTH sat AND asat. The resolution: from the highest perspective, the divine transcends the sat-asat distinction entirely — it is 'neither existent in the ordinary sense nor non-existent' (Upaniṣadic position). But in its cosmic expression, the divine manifests as the entire range: as sat (manifest existence, what IS) and as asat (the unmanifest potential, what IS NOT yet). The manifest world is sat; the unmanifest prakriti (V9.7-V9.8) is asat (not yet manifested). Both are the divine. V19's sat-asat thus echoes V8.20's two avyaktas (the cycling unmanifest and the sanātana avyakta beyond it) — both the manifest (sat) and the unmanifest (asat) are the divine. This is the Gita's most inclusive ontological statement: whatever IS and whatever is NOT — both are within the divine ground.
I give heat; I hold back the rain and send it forth. I am immortality and death, being and non-being, O Arjuna.
A modern analogy
Physicists know that energy is conserved — nothing is truly destroyed, only transformed. The sun's heat (tapāmi) enters the biosphere, drives weather (rain = varṣam), is metabolized by living organisms (amṛtam = life-sustaining), and eventually dissipates as entropy (mṛtyu = the death-direction of thermodynamics). All of this — the entire energy cycle of life and death — is this verse's divine encompassing sat and asat (matter and energy, manifest and unmanifest forms). The verse's cosmic vision predates but is consistent with modern physics' conservation of energy.
What it does NOT mean
This verse's 'I am death' (mṛtyuḥ ca aham) is not a frightening claim but an inclusive one. If the divine is ONLY immortality, then death is outside the divine — a problem, an enemy. The verse says: death too is the divine. Nothing in existence (including death) is outside the divine. This transforms the relationship to death: not as the opposite of the divine but as one of the divine's own faces. Later the divine will say, in even starker form, 'I am the all-seizing Death' (mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham) — and this verse prepares that teaching.
Take with you
- The verse's amṛtam-mṛtyu (immortality and death) is a death-contemplation practice: once a week, sit with the awareness of death — your own mortality. Then invoke this teaching: 'Death too is the divine (mṛtyuḥ ca aham). I am not approaching a place outside the divine — I am approaching one of the divine's own faces.' Let this contemplation transform the relationship to death from fear to recognition.
- The verse's sat-asat (being and non-being) is a creativity practice: the asat (non-being, the unmanifest potential) is the divine's own reservoir of creative possibility. Before any creative work, pause and touch the asat — the not-yet-manifest, the potentiality. Then let the sat emerge from it. This is the verse's creative cycle in miniature.
- The verse's rain-cycle (withholding and releasing) is a practice of timing: the divine withholds (nigṛhṇāmi) and releases (utsṛjāmi). Not everything should be released immediately. The rain teaches: timing matters. Some things need to be withheld (incubated, prepared) before being released. The divine's own act of withholding rain (nigṛhṇāmi) before the perfect release (utsṛjāmi) is the model.
Public-domain translations (3) compare all →
(As sun) I give heat; I withhold and send forth rain; I am immortality and also death; being and non-being am I, O Arjuna! [4]
I cause light and heat and rain; I now draw in and now let forth; I am death and immortality; I am the cause unseen and the visible effect. [6]
Sun's heat is mine; Heaven's rain is mine to grant or to withhold; Death am I, and Immortal Life I am, Arjuna! SAT and ASAT, Visible Life, And Life Invisible! [7]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
I am the Vedic ritual, sacrifice, ancestral offering, herb, mantra, oblation, fire, and the offering made.
I am all-seizing Death, and the birth of those to come; among feminine: Fame, Prosperity, Speech, Memory, Forbearance.
Vedic ritualists drink soma, seek heaven — purified of sin, they attain Indra's realm and enjoy celestial pleasures.
Arjuna asks: what does the truly wise person look like? How do they speak, sit, and move?
Paramātmā: beginningless, nirguṇa, imperishable — dwelling in the body, yet neither acts nor is tainted.
Transcending the three guṇas, the embodied one is freed from birth-death-age-pain and attains immortality.
Verse 19 of 34 · back to Chapter 9