Limits of Words and Other Symbols

“Words do not go there (na vāg gacchati).” Kena Upanishad 3

न तत्र चक्षुर् गच्छति न वाग् गच्छति नॊ मनः

In our Kena Upanishad class this morning, we were discussing the statement in the text that “Words do not go there.” The teacher is speaking here of the limits of all words and symbols to directly define the nature of the divine reality that enlivens our senses, bodily functions and mind.

We discussed this important teaching in the context of the Hindu tradition, but the teacher’s caution to his students that “words do not go there,” is one that speaks profoundly across religious traditions. Too often, we fail to acknowledge that the language of our sacred texts is “our” language, no doubt important and special to us, but naturally reflecting the finitude of our humanity and thus limited in relation to the infinite divine which is unlike any “object” that we know. As the teacher also reminds his students, “The eyes do not go there.”

Great harm has been and continues to be done when we absolutize our finite language about the infinite. This also is a form of arrogant idolatry that equates the infinite divine with a finite word symbol. We can only speak of God in humility and with a deep sense of our human limits.

What a wonderful dialogue it will be if our religions traditions came together to discuss, from their own perspectives and places of meaning, the significance of the Kena Upanishad teaching that “Words do not go there (na vāg gacchati).”