Upanishads · Kṛṣṇa 2.5
॥
Devanāgarī
स एव बहुधा जायमानः सर्वान् परिपाति
Transliteration (IAST)
sa eva bahudhā jāyamānaḥ sarvān paripāti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सः एव बहुधा जायमानःsaḥ eva bahudhā jāyamānaḥhe himself, being born in many forms
सर्वान् परिपातिsarvān paripātiprotects all
Translation
"He himself, being born in many forms, protects all."
Version
8ed1eb7d1e4f · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The line is short, and in it it is worth noting the verb paripāti, "protects," from pari-pā, "to guard on all sides." That is, the purpose of the manifold births is named protection. Let us compare this with the Gītā, where the same thought is given more fully: paritrāṇāya sādhūnām, "for the deliverance of the righteous" (4.8); and the three purposes were discussed when reading the eighteenth verse of the first section.
Let us add what is worth saying about the phrase bahudhā jāyamānaḥ, "being born in many forms." The participle stands in the present tense: not "was born" and not "will be born," but is being born. That is, the descents are not an event of the past; they occur and will occur.
The Bhāgavatam says this directly: avatārā hy asaṅkhyeyā hareḥ sattva-nidher dvijāḥ, "innumerable are the descents of Hari, the reservoir of being, O twice-born; as streams flow by the thousand from an inexhaustible lake" (1.3.26). The image of streams from a lake is worth keeping, for it explains why the lists of descents in different books do not match: they are not ten and not twenty-two, but uncountable; and only the most notable are listed. Let us add what follows from this practically. To dispute which historical figures are descents and which are not is, by this reckoning, futile; and the Vaiṣṇava side checks not by a list but by signs discussed when reading the Jābāla-darśana (5.11): what a person does, and where it leads.