NETI-NETI

In the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya is asked by his students to describe Brahman.  He states, "The Divine is not this, and it is not that," (neti-neti).

Thus, the Divine is not real as we are real, nor is it unreal.  The Divine is not living, in the sense that humans live, nor is it dead.  The Divine is not compassionate as we use the term, nor is it without compassion.

This is to say, we can never truly define the Divine in words.  All we can say, in effect, is that "It isn't this, but also it isn't that either."  In the end, the student must transcend words to understand the nature of the Divine. 

Neti-neti is not unique to Vedanta.  Called apophatic or negative theology, it is also found in Greek philosophy, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Taoism.  The opposite of the apophatic approach, called cataphatic theology, is found as well in all the philosophies and religions of the world, including Vedanta.