Rain and drought, life and death

tapāmyahamahaṃ varṣaṃ nigṛhṇāmyutsṛjāmi caamṛtaṃ caiva mṛtyuśca sadasaccāhamarjuna

I give heat. I hold back the rain and send it. I am deathlessness and death, what is and what is not, Arjuna.

What it means

Krishna says he gives the sun's heat. He holds back rain and lets it fall. He is amrita, immortality, and mrityu, death. Sat and asat, what is and what is not. Nothing lies outside him. Even the hard things, drought, endings, death, are held within the same reality.

The story

Arjuna wants a God of only good outcomes. Krishna offers something bigger. A presence in both life and death, so that even death on this field is not outside the sacred.

In your life

Think of a farmer who accepts both drought and rain as part of the land's rhythm, and keeps tending it. Hard seasons aren't outside life's care. Name one hard thing you're facing. Hold it gently today.