उपनिषद् · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 3.1
॥
देवनागरी
अथ हैनमत्रिः पप्रच्छ याज्ञवल्क्यं - य एषोऽनन्तोऽव्यक्तपरिपूर्णानन्दैकचिदात्मा तं कथमहं विजानीयामिति
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
atha hainamatriḥ papraccha yājñavalkyaṃ - ya eṣo'nanto'vyaktaparipūrṇānandaikacidātmā taṃ kathamahaṃ vijānīyāmiti
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
अथ ह एनम् अत्रिः पप्रच्छatha ha enam atriḥ papracchathen Atri asked him; next Atri questioned him
याज्ञवल्क्यम्yājñavalkyamYājñavalkya; Yājñavalkya
यः एषः अनन्तः अव्यक्तyaḥ eṣaḥ anantaḥ avyaktahe who is endless, unmanifest; the one who is boundless and unseen
परिपूर्णानन्दैकचिदात्माparipūrṇānandaikacidātmāthe all-full Ātman, one in bliss and consciousness; the all-perfect, single in joy and knowing
तम् कथम् अहम् विजानीयाम् इतिtam katham aham vijānīyām itihow may I know him; how could I come to know him
अनुवाद
Then Atri asked Yājñavalkya: “He who is the endless, unmanifest, all-full Ātman, one in bliss and consciousness — how may I know him?”
संस्करण
7cf8e7e60ca4 · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 5:15:19 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The third questioner — Atri, one of the seven ṛṣis — and his question is the most human in the whole book.
He does not ask what the Highest is: that he has already listed, and listed rightly — endless, unmanifest, all-full, one in bliss and consciousness.
He asks: how may I know him?
In this “I”, aham, is the whole salt. The definitions are known; what to do with them is not.
Set this question beside how the previous chapter ended. There it was said: “who says in truth ‘I am Rāma’ is freed”. And here at once they ask: but how?
The book, then, does not leave its strongest saying hanging in the air. It understands that after such words there remains the question of the man who has not yet lived any of it.
The answer will be unexpectedly concrete. Not an argument, but a place: between the brows and the nose. Then — the tale of what Śiva begged of Rāma in Kāśī.
From “how to know?” the book turns to “where” and “through whom”.