---
type: Concept
bundle: upanishadic-core
bundle_version: "0.6.1"
id: neti-neti
title: "Neti Neti"
iast: "Neti Neti"
devanagari: "नेति नेति"
description: "The apophatic inquiry method of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (2.3.6; 3.9.26; 4.2.4) — 'not this, not this' — a systematic via negativa that removes all conditional predicates from Brahman until what cannot be negated remains; not nihilism, not skepticism, not Western theological apophasis"
darshana:
  - Advaita Vedānta
  - Vedānta
school_scope: "Advaita Vedānta's principal method of negative definition of Brahman; complements Abheda (non-difference) as its positive counterpart"
text_source: "Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.3.6; 3.9.26; 4.2.4"
tags: [neti-neti, apophasis, brahman, viveka, advaita, inquiry, brhadaranyaka]
not:
  - term: "nihilism or 'nothing is real'"
    why: "Nihilism denies the existence of meaning, value, or being. Neti Neti does not deny being — it denies that Brahman is any particular qualified being. The negation systematically removes every limiting description (gross, subtle, form, formless, finite, infinite as a concept) — not to arrive at nothing but to arrive at what cannot be negated: pure being-awareness (Sat-Chit)."
    instead: "Read each Neti as removing a conditional description, not existence itself. What remains after all conditions are removed is not zero — it is the irreducible remainder that the conditions were obscuring"
  - term: "via negativa (Christian apophatic theology)"
    why: "Christian apophatic theology (Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross) denies properties to a transcendent God who remains a personal Creator distinct from creation. Neti Neti operates without the Creator-creation duality: Brahman is not being described as 'beyond description while remaining the Creator'; Brahman is being disclosed as the non-dual ground in which descriptions arise. The apophasis serves non-dualism, not transcendent theism."
  - term: "skepticism about knowledge"
    why: "Skepticism (philosophical or Pyrrhonist) suspends judgment about whether anything can be known. Neti Neti is the opposite move: it is a knowledge-producing method. By removing every conditional predicate, it delivers the student to the one thing that cannot be negated — the witness awareness that is doing the negating. The negation produces certainty, not suspension."
  - term: "a statement that Brahman is unknowable"
    why: "Neti Neti does not conclude that Brahman is beyond all knowledge. It concludes that Brahman cannot be known as an object. The distinction is critical: Brahman is known — through the Mahāvākya, through Śravaṇa — but known as the subject, not as an object of experience."
related:
  - /concepts/nirguna-brahman.md
  - /concepts/tat-tvam-asi.md
  - /concepts/manana.md
  - /concepts/sakshin.md
  - /concepts/pancha-kosha.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Neti Neti — नेति नेति

**Not:** nihilism, Christian apophatic theology, skepticism, "Brahman is unknowable"

## Etymology and Source

Neti (न इति) = "not this" (na = not; iti = thus/this). The reduplication (Neti Neti — "not this, not this") is the Bṛhadāraṇyaka's characteristic rhetorical form for exhaustive negation.

The phrase appears three times in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka:
- 2.3.6 — after describing Brahman's two forms (gross and subtle, mortal and immortal), Yājñavalkya concludes: *neti nety ātmā agṛhyo na hi gṛhyate* — "the Ātman is 'not this, not this'; it is ungrasped, for it is not grasped"
- 3.9.26 — Yājñavalkya applies the negation to Brahman in the cosmological inquiry
- 4.2.4 — in the dialogue with Janaka

## The Structural Logic of Neti Neti

The inquiry proceeds by taking every possible description of Brahman and negating it as incomplete:
- Brahman is not gross (it is not any physical object)
- Brahman is not subtle (it is not any mental state or energy)
- Brahman is not this world (which has origin and end)
- Brahman is not any higher world (which is still conditioned)
- Brahman is not form (form is objectifiable and finite)
- Brahman is not formless (formlessness defined over against form is still conditioned)

After each negation, what remains? Not nothing — but the awareness doing the negating. The structural insight is that the witness of every negation cannot itself be negated without infinite regress. Neti Neti arrives at Sākṣin (the witness) as the irreducible remainder.

## The Positive Complement

Neti Neti defines Brahman negatively (Taṭastha Lakṣaṇa at its most rigorous). Its positive complement is Abheda (non-difference) — the assertion that what cannot be negated (Sākṣin = Brahman) is identical with what the student already is. The two movements work together: Neti Neti removes all false superimpositions (Adhyāsa); Abheda restores the recognition of what was always present.

## Why the Doubling?

The repetition "not this, not this" (not merely "not this") emphasizes exhaustiveness. A single negation might be heard as pointing toward something else to be affirmed. The double negation closes that escape route: it is not that Brahman is "not X but Y." It is not X. It is not Y either. Not anything that can be indicated in a subject-predicate statement. What the double negation produces is not an endless regress but a specific epistemological posture: the student stops reaching for an object and recognizes the reaching-awareness itself.

## Neti Neti and Ātmavicāra

The Neti Neti method is the structural basis for Ātmavicāra (self-inquiry). The Bṛhadāraṇyaka's formulation moves from external objects inward (world → subtle body → Prāṇa → Manas → Vijñāna → Ānanda) negating each as a valid resting point for the Ātman. This inward movement through negation is precisely the structure that Ramana Maharṣi formalized as "Who am I?" — though in a condensed, direct form without the systematic Upaniṣadic scaffolding.

## Audience Metaphor

Someone looking for their glasses — which are on their face — searches the entire room, negating each location: "Not the table. Not the desk. Not the shelf. Not the bag." Each negation is correct and helpful. What is found at the end is not in the list of places searched — it was never absent. Neti Neti is that systematic search: not to find Brahman somewhere, but to exhaust the list of places where it is not, until what was never absent is recognized.

## Citations

1. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.3.6; 3.9.26; 4.2.4 — three appearances; see [references/brhadaranyaka-upanishad.md]
2. Brahmasūtra Bhāṣya 3.2.22 (Śaṅkarācārya) — Neti Neti as the definitive Upaniṣadic method for Brahman inquiry; see [references/brahmasutra-bhashya.md]
3. Vivekacūḍāmaṇi vv. 240–250 (Śaṅkarācārya) — the negation method and Adhyāsa removal; see [references/vivekachudamani.md]
