Is gItA an Upanishad?

[Vivek Anand Ganesan]

Hello all :

  I thank ShrI Vidyashankar and ShrI Jaldhar for their
replies.  In light of this discussion, I have a few more
questions :

1)  What exactly is the Advaita stand on Avatars
    ( particularly the ShrI VaishNava notion of Vibhava-
      Avatars )?
    How can we explain the "descent" of God within Advaita?
    Is He/She also exposed to mAya?  Do they have a
    seperate status among humans and other living beings?
    If they are "realized" beings then are they equivalent
    to jIvanmuktAs?

2)  If there is indeed an accommodation within Advaita
    for a "descent of God" then their utterances would
    be divine.  Would it not?  And as "word of God" it
    should have a higher status than the experiences and
    utterances of the Rishis.  Should it not?

3)  Finally, is there mention of any concept of Avatars
    ( or anything similar ) in the principal Advaita
    literature?  Also, are there references to different
    kinds of Avatars ( I understand that VaishNava sects
    categorize different kinds of Avatars though there
    seems to be no universal agreement amongst them on this
    )?

Thanks,

- Vivek.

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