Sanskrit
तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णाम्युत्सृजामि च । अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन ॥
tapāmy aham ahaṃ varṣaṃ nigṛhṇāmy utsṛjāmi ca amṛtaṃ caiva mṛtyuś ca sad asac cāham arjuna
Translation
I give heat; I hold back and send forth the rain; immortality and also death, being and non-being am I, Arjuna.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Closes the four-verse identification run by claiming the most fundamental opposites of all — heat and rain, immortality and death, being and non-being (sat and asat). Ending the sequence on “being and non-being” is a deliberate escalation: having claimed every particular thing in verses 16-18, this verse claims the categories underneath particularity itself. Sad asac ca aham — “I am both the real and the unreal” — pushes past the sat/asat distinction BG 2.16 drew so sharply. The identification run ends by claiming the frame, not just the contents.
Study deeper
Word by word
- tapāmy aham ahaṃ varṣaṃतपांय् अहं अहं वर्षं
- I give heat; I am the rain (tapāmi + aham + aham + varṣam)
- nigṛhṇāmy utsṛjāmi caनिगृह्णांय् उत्सृजामि च
- I withhold and send forth (nigṛhṇāmi + utsṛjāmi + ca)
- amṛtaṃ caiva mṛtyuś caअमृतं चैव मृत्युश् च
- I am immortality and death (amṛtam + ca + eva + mṛtyuḥ + ca)
- sad asac cāham arjunaसद् असच् चाहं अर्जुन
- I am being and non-being, O Arjuna (sat + asat + ca + aham + arjuna)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Having claimed particular pairs — heat and rain, life and death — the verse doesn’t stop at more particulars; it reaches for the category that contains particularity itself, sat and asat, being and non-being. It’s the rhetorical equivalent of exhausting a list by naming the shelf it sits on, rather than adding one more item to it.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're trying to convince yourself of something, don't just keep piling up more supporting examples — find the single underlying category they all belong to; naming it once settles the question faster than another example ever could.
Professional
- In a proposal or argument, resist listing endless individual cases as evidence — identify and name the general principle behind them instead; naming the category closes a debate that more examples would only prolong.
Family & Social
- When reassuring someone you love, don't keep listing specific promises one after another — name the underlying commitment itself; one clear category lands more solidly than a dozen small assurances.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.