I give heat, I withhold and send forth rain. I am immortality and also death; the existent and the non-existent, O Arjuna.

The Lord’s control of the elements. Tapāmi — I heat, I give heat — refers to the sun and fire. Varṣam — rain — is withheld and released according to divine will, sustenance of all life.

Amṛtaṃ caiva mṛtyuś ca — immortality and death — are two sides of the same coin, both manifestations of the Lord. Sad (that which is, the real) and asat (that which is not, the temporal) also come from Him.

This apparent contradiction — being life and death, the real and the unreal — points to the Lord transcending all dualities while containing them.