Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 3.7
॥
Devanāgarī
कतमं चास्य स्थानं भवतीति
Transliteration (IAST)
katamaṃ cāsya sthānaṃ bhavatīti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
कतमम् च अस्य स्थानम्katamam ca asya sthānamand which is its place; and what is its abode
भवति इतिbhavati itiis it; does it happen to be
Translation
“And which is its place?”
Version
d4acc9c0985a · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Atri's last question, and it is the most direct: where?
The word katamam — “which of many”. They ask not “is there a place” but which one exactly.
The preparation is finished. The three previous exchanges have stripped from the answer everything that could be taken for geography: Varaṇā and Nāsī proved two acts of purification. It remains to say where these acts take place.
The answer will be named in the next paragraph, and it will point to a spot in the human body.
Note that this whole ladder of questions — from Kurukṣetra to the avimukta, from the avimukta to the rivers, from the rivers to their meaning and finally to the place — has taken eight short paragraphs. So these books work: they do not explain at once; they lead.
Nor could they answer at once. Had Yājñavalkya said from the start “between the brows and the nose”, it would have been the pointing out of a bodily spot and nothing more. But passing through Kurukṣetra, the avimukta and the two rivers, the same spot proves to be everything at once: the battlefield, the holy city, and the place where the past is washed away.