Chapter 9: The Most Confidential Knowledge
Bg 9.19
TEXT 19
tapamy aham aham varsam
nigrhnamy utsrjami ca
amrtam caiva mrtyus ca
sad asac caham arjuna
SYNONYMS
tapämi—give heat; aham—I; aham—I; varñam—rain; nigåhëämi—withold; utsåjämi—send forth; ca—and; amåtam—immortality; ca—and; eva—certainly; måtyuù—death; ca—and; sat—being; asat—nonbeing; ca—and; aham—I; arjuna—O Arjuna.
TRANSLATION
O Arjuna, I control heat, the rain and the drought. I am immortality, and I am also death personified. Both being and nonbeing are in Me.
PURPORT
Kåñëa, by His different energies, diffuses heat and light through the agency of electricity and the sun. During summer season it is Kåñëa who checks rain from falling from the sky, and then, during the rainy season, He gives unceasing torrents of rain. The energy which sustains us by prolonging the duration of our life is Kåñëa, and Kåñëa meets us at the end as death. By analyzing all these different energies of Kåñëa, one can acertain that for Kåñëa there is no distinction between matter and spirit, or, in other words, He is both matter and spirit. In the advanced stage of Kåñëa consciousness, one does not therefore make such distinctions. He sees Kåñëa only in everything.
Since Kåñëa is both matter and spirit, the gigantic universal form comprising all material manifestations is also Kåñëa, and His pastimes in Våndävana as two-handed Çyämasundara, playing on a flute, are those of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.