उपनिषद् · Gopāla-tāpanī Uttara 34
॥
देवनागरी
कथं वाऽस्यावतारस्य ब्रह्मता भवति
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
kathaṁ vā'syāvatārasya brahmatā bhavati
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
कथम् वा अस्य अवतारस्यkatham vā asya avatārasyaand how does this descent; in what way does that avatāra
ब्रह्मता भवतिbrahmatā bhavatihave the nature of Brahman; prove to have the nature of the Highest
अनुवाद
And how does this descent have the very nature of Brahman?
संस्करण
cd1607462fe5 · प्रकाशित 28 जुल॰ 2026, 2:30:24 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The second half of the question — and it is harder than the first.
What is asked is this. A descent is a manifestation in the world; it has place, time and form, whereas Brahman is by definition limited by nothing. How do the two go together? How can one who has appeared possess brahmatā — the very nature of the Highest, and not a reflection or a partial presence of Him?
This question is decisive in theology. On the answer depends whether one takes the Lord's manifestation as a real coming of Himself or as the sending of a deputy. Gāndharvī in mantra 28 asked the same in other words: "how did He, truly beyond nature, descend to earth?"
Note that Brahmā too asks not "is it so" but "how is it so": of the fact itself he has no doubt. What is asked is the manner of the working, not its possibility.
Nārāyaṇa's answer would follow here — but at just this place the edition from which we give the text marks a gap: three mantras, 35–37, are absent from its source. We keep this gap rather than fill it with conjecture; the next mantra, 38, continues the account.