10.36 The gambling of the deceitful Krishna speaks
द्यूतं छलयतामस्मि तेजस्तेजस्विनामहम्
जयोऽस्मि व्यवसायोऽस्मि सत्त्वं सत्त्ववतामहम्
dyūtaṁ chhalayatām asmi tejas tejasvinām aham
jayo ’smi vyavasāyo ’smi sattvaṁ sattvavatām aham
I am the gambling of the deceitful and the brilliance of the brilliant. I am victory; I am resolve; I am the goodness of the good.
Explanation
I am the gambling of the deceitful.
dyūtaṁ chalayatām asmi — an extraordinary thing to find in a list of glories, and it is not softened.
The Mahabharata's whole catastrophe began with a rigged dice game. And then, in the same verse: I am the goodness of the good. Both are claimed.
Going further
Word by word
- dyūtam
- gambling
- chhalayatām
- of all cheats
- asmi
- I am
- tejaḥ
- the splendor
- tejasvinām
- of the splendid
- aham
- I
- jayaḥ
- victory
- asmi
- I am
- vyavasāyaḥ
- firm resolve
- asmi
- I am
- sattvam
- virtue
- sattva-vatām
- of the virtuous
- aham
- I
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Dyūtaṁ chhalayatām asmi — I am the gambling of the deceitful.
An extraordinary thing to find in a list of glories, and it is not a slip. Having claimed the sun, the Himalaya and the Ganges, the same voice claims cheating at dice. Anyone building a tidy theology from this chapter has to account for this verse, and most attempts do not.