📿 Shloka Collection

Tapamy Aham Aham Varsham

Gita 9.19 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 9 — Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga
तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णाम्युत्सृजामि च ।
अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन ॥
Tapamy aham aham varsham nigrihnaamy utsrijami cha
Amritam chaiva mrityush cha sad asach chaham arjuna
तपामि
I give heat
अहम्
I
वर्षम्
rain
निगृह्णामि
I hold back
उत्सृजामि
I release, I pour forth
अमृतम्
immortality
मृत्युः
death
सत्
sat — that which exists, the manifest
असत्
asat — the unmanifest, the beyond
च अहम्
that too is me

Krishna now claims both sides of every duality. He gives the scorching heat and he sends the rain. He holds the clouds back and then releases them. What gives life — amritam — that is Krishna. What takes life — mrityu — that too is Krishna.

And then the final pair: sat and asat. What is visible, tangible, present — sat — is Krishna. And what lies beyond the visible, the unmanifest, the mystery that words cannot reach — asat — that too is Krishna. He does not fit into any single category. He is the category and its opposite, both at once.

This can be unsettling to the logical mind. But it is not meant to be resolved through argument. It is meant to be held with wonder — the way one holds the night sky, knowing it is too vast to measure.

This shloka completes the series (9.16-9.19) in which Krishna describes his all-encompassing nature. Life and death, heat and rain, the seen and the unseen — all belong to him.

The Taittiriya Upanishad describes Brahman as 'satyam jnanam anantam.' The 'asat' here is not non-existence but the dimension beyond description — the anantam, the infinite that words cannot capture.

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