अहं क्रतुरहं यज्ञः स्वधाऽहमहमौषधम्।
मंत्रोऽहमहमेवाज्यमहमग्निरहं हुतम्।।9.16।।
पिताऽहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामहः।
वेद्यं पवित्रमोंकार ऋक् साम यजुरेव च।।9.17।।
गतिर्भर्ता प्रभुः साक्षी निवासः शरणं सुहृत्।
प्रभवः प्रलयः स्थानं निधानं बीजमव्ययम्।।9.18।।
तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णाम्युत्सृजामि च।
अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन।।9.19।।
I am the ritual, I am the sacrifice, I am the oblation, I am the medicinal herb, I am the mantra, I am the clarified butter, I am the fire, and I am the act of offering.
Of this world, I am the father, mother, ordainer, and grandfather; I am the knowable, the sanctifier, the syllable Om, as well as the Rk, Sama, and Yajus.
I am the fruit of actions, the nourisher, the Lord, witness, abode, refuge, friend, origin, end, foundation, store, and the imperishable seed.
O Arjuna, I give heat, I withhold and pour down rain; I am verily the nectar, and also death, existence, and non-existence.
Osho’s Commentary
Krishna now makes a series of breathtaking, cosmic declarations. He is revealing himself not as a person, but as the total reality. He says, “I am everything.” The ritual and the sacrifice, the sacred words of the Vedas, the fire and the offering—all are me. “I am the father, the mother, the grandfather.” He is not just a distant patriarch. He is the entire lineage of existence. The mother who gives birth, the father who sustains, and the ultimate source from which they both come. He is the goal and the path. The witness and the abode. The refuge and the intimate friend. He is the origin and the dissolution, the imperishable seed from which all of life sprouts. And then, the ultimate paradoxes. “I am immortality and I am death.” The mind wants to separate these. We see life as good and death as evil. But for Krishna, they are two faces of the same reality. Life finds its culmination in death; death is the gateway to a new life. They are a single, rhythmic dance. “I am being (sat) and non-being (asat).” I am that which is, and I am also that which is not. This is the deepest mystery. Existence and the void are not two different things. They are like two shores of the same river. The form and the formless, the manifest and the unmanifest—both are contained within me. This is not a philosophy to be understood; it is a vision to be seen. It is to see the one, undivided reality playing in all these myriad forms and their opposites.