Neti, Neti

Once upon a time a man approached Adi Shankaracharya, a famous priest, and asked him to help him "see God". The priest smiled and asked the man to close his eyes and imagine the most powerful object or person. The man closed his eyes and saw the strength of ten elephants.  The man smiled and said "I see!"


The priest's voice sharply cut through his thoughts. "NO! That's not it.  Think harder!"

The man closed his eyes and saw the power of an earthquake.

The priest abruptly interrupted him before he could even speak. "NO! It is not that either!"

The man closed his eyes and just imagined pure, faceless strength.  Strength and power in its grandest form.  A strength to move universes, a power to touch stars, an ability to create....

Once more, the priest interrupted him: "NO, you fool! That is dust in comparison to God."

The man, fed up and irritated, asked the priest, "What is the point of this?  I'm obviously incapable of knowing what God is."

The priest smiled and said knowingly, "Maybe that is true, but you are definitely capable of understanding what god ISN'T."



"How will that help me in my search?"

The priest spoke, "When you have stripped all worldly attributes from Him.  When you have cut away all that "is" from Him.  When you have carved away even "Him" from Him.  When you have removed all of reality and you are blind even though your eyes are open.  In that dark place you will find God...Nirguna Brahman."

There's a commonly told story about when Michelangelo carved "David".  The Pope, mesmerized by the beauty and elegance of the statue, asked Michelangelo:  “How are you able to cut away from a block of stone, this beautiful image of David?”
 

Michelangelo replied, “It’s simple. I just remove everything that doesn’t look like David.”

People of faith often assert and try and define what God is.  What books he wrote, which people he fathered, which sacrifices he sponsored, which languages he spoke, which decisions he made.

But he is neither a writer, nor a progenitor. Neither a master of ceremonies, nor an orator. Neither a politician, nor anything that we can imagine with our mortal minds.

He is...in Sanskrit...Na. Iti. Na. Iti.  Neti, Neti. Neither this, nor that.