Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 3.3
॥
Devanāgarī
सोऽविमुक्तः कस्मि प्रतिष्ठित इति
Transliteration (IAST)
so'vimuktaḥ kasmi pratiṣṭhita iti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सः अविमुक्तः कस्मिन् प्रतिष्ठितः इतिsaḥ avimuktaḥ kasmin pratiṣṭhitaḥ iti“and in what is the avimukta established?”; “on what is the avimukta founded?”
Translation
“And in what is the avimukta established?”
Version
1c6a9d65d334 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Atri is not satisfied and asks further.
This is an important trait of these conversations: the questioner does not accept an answer that has changed nothing. He has been given a word; he wants to know what it refers to.
So behaved Naciketas in the Kaṭha, thrice refusing the gifts until he received the answer about death; so Maitreyī in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka questioned her husband again.
To question, in the Upaniṣads, is not ignorance but work.
Note too the form: kasmin pratiṣṭhitaḥ — “in what is it established?” This is the old form of the Vedic interrogation: of everything one asks on what it stands, until one reaches that which stands on nothing.
We saw such a ladder in the Chāndogya, where Sanatkumāra led Nārada from the name to speech, from speech to mind, and so to the very top.
Here the ladder is short — three questions — but built the same way.