If you are looking for the “Truth” through logic or sensory experience alone, you are like a person trying to hear a colour or taste a sound. You are employing the wrong instrument. This section explores the fundamental paradox of using language to discuss the ultimate, word-transcendent Reality (Brahman) in the Upaniṣadic tradition. It explains why words and the mind, designed to grasp objects, fail to capture the limitless Subject, citing texts such as the Taittirīya and Kena Upaniṣads.
The Human Predicament
The analysis details the linguistic mechanics of this failure, explaining that Brahman lacks the four conditions (species, attribute, action, relationship) necessary for direct verbal reference. Finally, it presents the teacher’s method: using the “Impasse of Language” not as a wall, but as a tool to dismantle the seeker’s false assumptions and turn the focus from the objectified world to the self-evident Knower.
1. The Paradox of the Silent Source
We start with a fundamental contradiction. Every day, we use words to describe the world. We name the trees, we define the stars, and we categorise our feelings. Yet, when the Upaniṣads point toward the ultimate Reality (Brahman), they immediately issue a warning:
“From which words return along with the mind, without reaching it.” (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.4.1)
Think of the mind and speech as a searchlight. This light is designed to illuminate everything in the room – the furniture, the walls, the floor. But there is one thing the searchlight can never illuminate: the bulb itself. The Kena Upaniṣad (1.3) clarifies this: “There the eye goes not, speech goes not, nor the mind.” Why? Because Brahman is not an object in the room, it is the very light by which the room is seen. It is the “eye of the eye” and the “mind of the mind.”
2. The Mechanics of Failure: Why Words Cannot “Touch” Truth
To understand why words fail, we must look at how language works. In the Vedāntic tradition, we speak of Śabda-pravṛtti-nimitta – the conditions that must be met for a word to function.
For you to use a word to describe something, that “something” must possess at least one of four features:
- Jāti (Species): You say “cow” because it belongs to a category. But Brahman is Ekam, the only one. There is no “species” of Brahman.
- Guṇa (Attribute): You say “blue” or “large.” But Brahman is Nirguṇa, without attributes like colour, weight, or dimension.
- Kriyā (Action): You say “the runner” or “the cook.” But Brahman is Niṣkriya, the actionless witness.
- Sambandha (Relationship): You say “the father” or “the owner.” But Brahman is Advitīya – non-dual. There is no second thing for it to relate to.
Because Brahman fulfils none of these conditions, it is Avācya – beyond the reach of direct vocabulary. When you try to “think” of the Infinite, your mind creates a “concept” of the Infinite. But a concept is just a small, limited thought sitting inside your head. It is an object. The Subject can never become the Object.
3. Structural Example: The Phone Number and the Busy Subject
Consider the phone in your pocket. With it, you can dial any of the billions of numbers on this planet. You can reach a friend in Tokyo or a business in London. But there is one number you can never “reach” using that same phone: your own number. If you dial yourself, the line is eternally “busy.”
The senses and the mind are exactly like that phone. They are outgoing instruments. They can objectify atoms, galaxies, and even your own ego. But they cannot “dial” the Knower. The one who is looking through the eyes can never be seen by the eyes.
4. Exposing the Error: The “Decorated Broomstick” Assumption
Most seekers come to Vedānta with a hidden, erroneous assumption: they believe that the “Unlimited” is simply a “very large version of the limited.” They think that by adding enough information, enough experience, or enough meditation, they will eventually “reach” the Infinite.
This is the error of The Decorating of the Broomstick. If you identify yourself as a limited body-mind complex, you are like a wooden broomstick. You may add gold carvings (wealth), silk ribbons (power), or even bright lights (spiritual experiences) to the stick. But no matter how much you “decorate” the broomstick, it remains a finite piece of wood.
Finite + Finite = Finite. You cannot reach the Infinite by addition.
5. The Cornered Intellect: Known vs. Unknown
The teacher uses a specific linguistic tool to trap your ego and force a shift in vision. The Kena Upaniṣad (1.4) says: “It is distinct from the known and also distinct from the unknown.”
This is designed to “corner” your intellect.
- If I tell you the Truth is “known,” you will look for it as an object you already possess.
- If I tell you it is “unknown,” you will wait for it to arrive in the future as a new experience.
By saying it is neither, the teacher forces you to look at the only thing that remains: The Knower. You cannot say you “know” yourself as an object, yet you cannot say you are “unknown” to yourself. You are the self-evident (Svataḥ Siddha) Subject.
6. The Impasse as a Starting Point
The “Impasse of Language” is not a wall; it is a gateway. We acknowledge that words return empty-handed because the Truth is the one who sent the words out in the first place.
As we will see in the next section, the genius of the Upaniṣads lies not in trying to describe the King in the procession, but in using words to distinguish the King from the entourage. We are not going to create a new “belief” about the Self; we are going to use the “Verbal Mirror” to reflect what is already present but currently ignored.
The Methodology – Vedānta as a Pramāṇa
In secular life, we accept five primary instruments of knowledge: perception, inference, comparison, postulation, and non-apprehension. These are Pauruṣeya, meaning they rely on human faculties. However, these instruments are outward-bound; they are designed to study the objective universe.
Vedānta is presented as the Svatantra Pramāṇa – an independent “Sixth Sense Organ.” Just as the eye is the only instrument for color, the Upaniṣad is the only instrument for the Subject.
“What cannot be known through perception or inference, that is known through the Veda.” (Sāyaṇa’s Definition)
If you shut your eyes, you are “blind” to the world of color, no matter how much you “think” about it. Similarly, if you shut the Pramāṇa of the Veda, you remain spiritually blind, regardless of your intellectual brilliance.
1. The Śāstra Darpaṇa: The Verbal Mirror
The most vital metaphor in our teaching is the Mirror. Your eyes have the power to see the entire galaxy, yet they suffer from a structural limitation: they can see everything except themselves.
To see the “Seer,” you require an external medium that can reflect light back to its source. The words of the Upaniṣad do not “describe” a faraway God; they act as a Śāstra Darpaṇa (Scriptural Mirror). When the teacher handles these words, they turn your vision 180 degrees. They do not give you a new experience; they help you recognize the one who is having the experience. This is why we call the knowledge Aparōkṣa (Immediate): it is as immediate as seeing your own face in a mirror.
2. The Man with Four Senses: The Limits of Science
Consider a man born with only four senses, lacking the sense of sight. If you attempt to explain the “beauty of a sunrise” to him, he may challenge you: “Prove it to me! Let me hear the sunrise, or smell it, or touch it.”
No matter how much logic he uses, he can never prove or disprove color, because his instruments are not tuned to that frequency. Science and logic are based on the five senses (Pauruṣeya Viṣaya). Brahman is Apauruṣeya Viṣaya – beyond the reach of human sensory data. Therefore, the “Sixth Sense” (Veda) does not contradict science; it operates in a realm where science has no “scope.”
3. Logic as a Subservient Tool (Śrutimata Tarka)
Does this mean we must abandon our intellect and rely on blind faith? No. In Vedānta, we distinguish between Independent Logic and Subservient Logic.
- Independent Logic is like a man wandering in a forest without a map; he can walk for miles but never knows if he is getting closer to the exit.
- Subservient Logic (Mananam) is the use of the intellect to remove the “dust” from the mirror.
As the Kaṭha Upaniṣad (1.2.9) says, “This wisdom cannot be gained through logical argumentation.” Logic cannot generate the truth of the Self, but once the Pramāṇa (Veda) reveals the truth, logic is used to ensure that the understanding is free of contradictions.
4. Structural Example: The Lost Spectacles
A man frantically searches his house for his spectacles. He looks under the bed, in the drawers, and asks his neighbors. Finally, a friend (the Teacher) points and says, “They are on your nose.”
The man does not “gain” new spectacles; he simply stops the erroneous search. He was looking through the very thing he was looking for. This is why the Upaniṣads call the Self Aupaniṣadam Puruṣam – the Person revealed only by the Upaniṣads. The words do not bring the Self to you; they remove the ignorance that makes you feel the Self is missing.
6. The Shift: From “Knowing About” to “Being”
When a telescope shows you a distant star, you gain Parōkṣa Jñānam (indirect knowledge). The star is “there,” and you are “here.” But when a mirror shows you your face, there is no distance. You cannot say, “I see my face over there.” You say, “I am this.”
The methodology of Vedānta is designed to move you from the “Telescope” (looking for a distant Truth) to the “Mirror” (recognizing the ever-present Subject). In the next section, we will examine the specific “trick” the teacher uses to make this reflection happen: the method of Superimposition and Negation.
As a teacher in this tradition, I must emphasise that the goal of our inquiry is not to reach a destination, but to realise you never left home. In this final stage, we move from the process of looking to the act of recognising. We call this awakening.
As a teacher in this tradition, I must now lead you to the heart of the Vedāntic strategy. If the Reality we seek is non-dual (Advaita) and beyond words, why does the scripture spend so much time talking about creation, elements, and the world? This is not a contradiction; it is a calculated pedagogical “trick.” We call this method Adhyāropa–Apavāda.
The Strategic Error – Adhyāropa – Apavāda
If I wish to teach you about a “world-free” Reality (Niṣprapañca Brahman), I cannot do so directly, because your mind is currently filled with the world.
Adhyāropa is the act of deliberate superimposition. The teacher temporarily accepts your premise that the world is real and asks: “Where did this world come from?” The Taittirīya Upaniṣad (3.1) then introduces Brahman as the Jagat Kāraṇam – the Cause from which all beings are born.
This is like the Teacher’s “mistake” in a math class. To teach you the principles of multiplication, the teacher might say, “If one pencil costs 10 dollars…” You don’t argue about the price of pencils; you follow the logic of multiplication. The “creation stories” in Vedānta are not intended to be scientific facts; they are “disposable cups” used to deliver the water of Truth. Once you have drunk the water, the cup (the concept of God as a Creator) is discarded.
1. The Mechanics of Negation: Apavāda
Once the student accepts that Brahman is the Cause and the World is the Effect, the teacher applies the second half of the method: Apavāda (Negation).
The teacher uses the logic of Tadananyatvam: the effect is nothing other than its material cause. Consider the Pot and the Clay. When you look at a pot, do you see two things? No. There is only clay. The “pot” is merely a Vācārambhaṇaṁ – a name arising from speech (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.1.4). The pot has no weight of its own; if you weigh the pot, you are only weighing the clay.
Similarly, in Gold and Ornaments, we introduce the “bangle” and the “ring” only to prove they are nothing but gold. Once you realize the substance is gold, the “bangle-ness” is negated. It is still experienced, but it is no longer counted as a separate reality. This is the shift from the Triangular Format (God, World, and Me) to the Binary Format (The Real and the Apparent).
2. Vivarta: The Changeless Material Cause
Most causes in this world change into their effects – like milk turning into curd. Once milk becomes curd, it’s gone. But Brahman is a Vivarta Upādāna Kāraṇam – a material cause that remains unchanged while appearing as the effect.
Think of the Dream World. You, the waker, are the material cause of your entire dream. You become the dream mountains, the dream people, and the dream tiger. Yet, you do not actually change or divide yourself. Upon waking (Knowledge), the dream is negated (Apavāda), and you realize you were the only truth there. The relationship between Brahman and the world is not a real connection; it is a Satya-Mithyā relationship – the relationship between a Rope and a Snake.
3. Equation through Dismissal (Bādhāyāṁ Sāmānādhikaraṇyam)
When the Upaniṣads say, “All this is Brahman,” the student often misunderstands this to mean that the “solid, material world” is God. This is an error.
This is an Equation of Negation, like saying “The thief is actually that wooden post.” You are not saying the thief and the post are equal; you are saying that what you thought was a thief is, upon closer inspection, nothing but a post. You are dismissing the “thief-status” entirely.
4. The End of Causality
The final stage of Apavāda is the most radical. Once the “Effect” (the world) is negated as a mere name, the “Cause” status of Brahman must also be dropped. Why? Because a man is only a “Father” as long as he has a “Child.” If the child is found to be a dream, the father-status disappears too.
Brahman is finally revealed as Kārya-Kāraṇa-Vilakṣaṇa – beyond both cause and effect. As the Māṇḍūkya Kārikā declares: “Na nirodho na cotpattiḥ” – there is no dissolution, and there is no creation. This is the final silence where the scaffolding of the teaching is removed, and the Truth stands alone, world-free and absolute.
In the next section, we will see how these words, having negated the world, finally point to you as the Subject.
As a teacher in this tradition, I must emphasize that the goal of Section IV is to show how the Upaniṣads perform a “surgical” operation on language. Since we have already established that direct words fail, we must now understand the “indirect” method. The teacher does not give you a new object; the teacher helps you discard a “costume” to recognize the person.
The Mechanics of Revelation – How Words Point
In our daily lives, we use two types of meaning. There is the Vācyārtha (Direct Meaning) and the Lakṣyārtha (Implied Meaning). If I say, “The pot is on the table,” you take the direct meaning. But if I say, “I ate a whole mango,” you do not literally mean you swallowed the skin and the large, hard seed. You imply the pulp by discarding the inedible parts.
In the Great Equation, Tat Tvam Asi (“You are That”), the literal meaning leads to a total contradiction. “You” (the Jīva) is limited in power and location. “That” (the Lord) is all-powerful and all-pervading. Equating a “glow-worm” to the “Sun” is logically absurd. Therefore, the mind must shift from the direct to the implied meaning.
1. The Surgical Method: Bhāga-Tyāga Lakṣaṇa
To resolve this contradiction, Vedānta uses the “Partially-Discarding, Partially-Retaining” method.
Consider the classic example: “This is that Devadatta.”
Imagine you saw your friend Devadatta twenty years ago in a distant city (that Devadatta). Today, you see an old man in front of you (this Devadatta).
- The Conflict: The “young body” is not the “old body.” The “past” is not the “present.”
- The Resolution: You perform Bhāga-Tyāga. You discard (Tyāga) the contradictory attributes of time, age, and place, and you retain (Bhāga) the essential person who underlies both.
In Tat Tvam Asi, we discard the “Wattage.” We discard the “Smallness” of the Jīva and the “Vastness” of Īśvara. What remains is the “Electricity” – the Pure Consciousness that is identical in both.
2. Structural Metaphor: The King and the Procession
Most seekers think the Upaniṣads are trying to describe a mysterious “Brahman” hidden somewhere. But consider a King moving in a grand procession. He is surrounded by elephants, musicians, and soldiers. A teacher points his finger and says, “That is the King.”
The teacher is not introducing you to the elephants or the musicians. In fact, the teacher wants you to ignore the pageantry so you can isolate the King. Similarly, the words of the Upaniṣad (like Satyam, Jñānam) are used to distinguish the “Witness” (the King) from the “entourage” of your body, thoughts, and senses.
3. The Method of Negation: Neti Neti
The Upaniṣad reveals the Truth not by adding a feature, but by stripping away everything else. This is Niṣedha Mukha Pramāṇa – revelation via negation.
“Neti Neti”: Not this, not this. (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad)
When you negate the gross universe and the subtle mind, you might fear that “nothing” remains. But the teacher points out: The Negator cannot be negated. If you say “everything is gone,” the one who is witnessing that “absence” is the Truth. The “un-negatable residue” is the Self.
4. Mauna: The Silence that Teaches
We often hear that the highest teaching is Silence. But this is frequently misunderstood as a literal lack of sound. As we say in the Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotram: “The truth of Brahman is revealed by the teaching of silence.”
Silence in Vedānta means the “Negation of Concepts.” If a guest says, “I have consumed three cups,” the literal meaning is impossible. You discard the “cup” (the container) and retain the “coffee” (the content). Similarly, when the teacher uses words to negate all objects, the resulting “Silence” is not a void; it is the recognition of the Contentless Consciousness.
5. The Shift: From Costume to Actor
Imagine two actors on a stage: one plays a King, the other a Servant. On the stage (the world), they are vastly different. But in the dressing room (Reality), they are both just actors.
The “Difference” belongs to the Upādhi (the role/costume). The “Identity” belongs to the Svarūpa (the person). The mechanics of revelation involve removing the ego’s “costume” to reveal the ever-present “Actor.” In the next section, we will see that this recognition is not a new experience, but a shift in your very identity.
The Recognition – Knowledge as Awakening
The most persistent obstacle in a seeker’s mind is the “Experience Trap.” You have been conditioned to believe that Self-realization is a mystic event – a flash of light, a state of Samādhi, or a “new” experience that will arrive after years of practice.
In Vedānta, we distinguish between Anubhava (Experience) and Jñānam (Knowledge).
- Experience is an event. It has a beginning and an end. If your “realization” comes, it will surely go.
- Knowledge is a fact. Once you know that 2+2=4, that knowledge does not “go away” when you stop thinking about it.
Recognition is not the arrival of a new experience; it is the Prāptasya prāptiḥ – the “attainment of the already attained.” It is like a woman searching her house for a necklace, only to realize, through the words of a friend, that it is already around her neck.
1. Pratibōdha Viditam: The Light in Every Thought
The Kena Upaniṣad (2.4) provides the technical key: “Brahman is known through every cognition.” To find Consciousness, you do not need to empty your mind or stop your thoughts. Consider the relationship between a hand and the light in a room. To see the light, do you need to remove the hand? No. The very fact that the hand is visible proves the presence of the light.
Similarly, whether you are thinking of a pot, a person, or a problem, Consciousness is the “Light” that makes that thought possible. Every thought is a “Cognition” (Pratibōdha). Vedānta does not ask you to change the thoughts; it asks you to notice the Illuminator that is equally present in every thought. This is the shift from the “Specific” (the thought) to the “General” (the Awareness).
2. Structural Metaphor: Awakening the Sleeper
How can words spoken in a state of ignorance (the “waking” world, which Vedānta calls a dream) reveal the absolute Truth?
Consider the Supta Puruṣa Prabōdhanam – the awakening of a sleeper. When you are deep in sleep, you are in a different world. If I stand next to your bed and call your name, “Wake up, Devadatta!”, my words belong to the waking world, while you are in the sleep world. Logically, there is no connection (asambandha) between us.
Yet, the sound has a mysterious power. It travels into your sleep, breaks the dream, and returns you to your true status as a waker. The words of the Mahāvākya, Tat Tvam Asi (“You are That”), function exactly like this. They are sounds within the “dream” of Saṁsāra that have the unique power to wake you up to your status as Turiya (the Fourth/Absolute).
3. Anecdote: The Tenth Man
Ten friends crossed a rushing river. Reaching the other side, they feared one had drowned. Each man counted the others, but only found nine – because each man forgot to count himself. They sat down and wept for the “lost” tenth man.
A passerby (the Teacher) saw their grief and understood the error. He didn’t produce a tenth man from the bushes. He lined them up and told the leader, “You are the tenth.”
The knowledge “I am the tenth” did not create a new person. The tenth man was there during the crossing, there during the counting, and there during the weeping. The teacher’s words only removed the ignorance that caused the grief.
4. The “Super-Waker” Status
The Kaṭha Upaniṣad issues the call: “Uttiṣṭhata jāgrata” – “Arise!” Awake! This is not a call to wake up from bed, but to wake up from the identification with the body and mind.
No one ever says, “I do not know myself.” You are already self-evident (Svataḥ Siddha). You do not need a mirror to know “I am.” Recognition is simply dropping the “decorators” we discussed in Section I – the labels of “I am a father,” “I am a seeker,” or “I am limited.” When these attributes are negated through the “Thorn of Knowledge,” the ever-pure, ever-awake Self remains.
As the Manīṣā Pañcakam declares, this Consciousness shines clearly in waking, dream, and deep sleep. You are already the “Waker.” The teaching has simply pointed out that you were never the “Dreamer” you took yourself to be.
As a teacher in this tradition, I must emphasise that the mirror of Vedānta is perfect and the light of the Self is ever-shining. Why then is the reflection missing? It is because the seeker focuses on the “what” of the teaching while ignoring the “who” of the student. If the medium is not ready, the message cannot be received.
Respect Student Readiness (Adhikāritva)
We often believe that understanding is a matter of IQ or the teacher’s eloquence. But in this tradition, we say:
“The accomplishment of the fruit (knowledge) primarily depends upon the qualified student.” (Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 14)
If you have no eyes, what can a mirror do for you? This is the core of Jñāna Yogyatā (fitness for knowledge). The scriptures are a Pramāṇa (instrument), but every instrument requires specific conditions to function. A telescope requires a clear sky; a microscope requires a steady slide; the “Verbal Mirror” of Vedānta requires a Sādhana Catuṣṭaya Sampanna mind – one that is focused, dispassionate, and calm.
1. Structural Metaphor: Surface Preparation
Consider the act of painting a wall. If the wall is covered in old, peeling paint and layers of dust, no matter how expensive or high-quality your new paint is, it will not stick. It will eventually flake off and fall away.
In the same way, the Mahāvākya (The Great Equation) is the “Paint.” Your mind is the “Wall.” Most seekers try to apply the paint of “I am Brahman” onto a mind still layered with the dust of Rāga-Dveṣa (intense likes and dislikes). Karma Yoga is the sandpapering process. It does not give you the paint, but it prepares the surface so that when the teacher speaks, the knowledge “sticks” and stays.
2. The Communication Gap: Indra and Virocana
There is an inevitable gap between the teacher’s intended meaning and the student’s habitual reception. The teacher points to the Sākṣī (the Witness), but the student hears it through the filter of the Ahaṅkāra (the Ego).
In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, Indra and Virocana both hear the same teaching from Prajāpati. Virocana, the demon king, is an unprepared student. He hears “The Self is the Truth” and immediately assumes it means “The body is the Truth.” He leaves satisfied, but he remains in bondage. Indra, however, has the Yogyatā (fitness). He reflects, sees the contradiction, and returns to his teacher. He spends 101 years refining his mind until the gap between “I” (the ego) and “I” (the Self) is bridged.
3. Structural Metaphor: The Dusty Mirror and the Three Defects
The mind suffers from three specific “diseases” that prevent the Verbal Mirror from working:
- Mala (Impurity): Extrovertedness and selfish desires. Like thick dust on a mirror.
- Vikṣepa (Restlessness): A mind that jumps like a monkey. Like a mirror that is constantly shaking.
- Āvaraṇa (Ignorance): The fundamental veil. Like a dark cloth covering the mirror.
Karma Yoga wipes the dust (Mala). Upāsana (meditation/focus) stops the mirror from shaking (Vikṣepa). Only when the mirror is clean and steady can the teacher’s words remove the cloth (Āvaraṇa). If you try to remove the cloth while the mirror is still dusty and shaking, you will see nothing but a blur.
4. Wet Fuel vs. Dry Fuel
Why does one student hear “You are That” and become liberated instantly, while another listens for decades without change?
Think of Fuel. An unprepared mind is “Wet Fuel,” soaked in worldly attachments. You can hold a match to it all day, and it will only produce smoke (confusion). A prepared mind is “Dry Fuel” or “Dry Cotton.” The moment the match of the Mahāvākya touches it, the fire of knowledge blazes forth instantly.
5. The Necessity of the “Binary Format”
The student’s primary task in readiness is shifting from a Triangular Format (God, World, and Me are separate) to a Binary Format (There is only the Dr̥k/Seer and the Dr̥śya/Seen).
When the student is not ready, the teacher uses Adhyāropa – he temporarily accepts your belief that God is a creator in heaven. This is a “temporary shelter.” But the goal is Apavāda – negating that creator to reveal the Truth as your own Self. If the student lacks maturity, they cling to the shelter and never reach the destination. As we say in the Cāṇakya Nīti: “For one who has no intelligence (readiness) of his own, what can the scripture do?” We do not shame the student for not understanding; we simply point back to the “Sandpaper” of Karma Yoga. Readiness is not about being “smart”; it is about being “clear.”
As a teacher in this tradition, I must conclude by pointing out the most vital “trick” of the Upaniṣads. A tool is only successful if it eventually makes itself redundant. If, after decades of study, you are still clinging to the words of the scripture as a separate reality to be protected, the teaching has not yet done its job. The ultimate goal of the “Verbal Mirror” is for you to recognise your face and put the mirror down.
Final Thoughts
The paradox of the teaching – using words to point beyond words – is resolved in the end-state of Svarūpa-Avasthānam. The seeker stops searching because the Tenth Man has recognised himself. The various metaphors – the Boat, the Thorn, the Hamlet Effect, and the Funeral Pole – all illustrate the same principle: the tools of instruction are intentionally self-negating.
The teaching (Śāstra) functions as a “Verbal Mirror.” It uses precise language to correct a fundamental confusion (Avidhyā), but its success is marked by its own dissolution. The communication gap is finally bridged when the student realises that the Teacher, the Teaching, and the Student were all, fundamentally, just one’s own Self appearing in different forms. The language is not what is realised, but the catalyst for realisation. The tool is dropped not because it was false, but because it has revealed the reality that is eternally beyond words – the Self, the very Light that makes both the word and the understanding possible.