The Known That Cannot Become My Opinion
यस्यामतं तस्य मतं मतं यस्य न वेद सः ।अविज्ञातं विजानतां विज्ञातमविजानताम् ॥
yasyāmataṁ tasya mataṁ mataṁ yasya na veda saḥ |avijñātaṁ vijānatāṁ vijñātamavijānatām ||
The one who has not made It into an opinion has known It; the one who thinks, “I know It,” does not know. It remains unknown to those who catch the letter, the form, and keep building opinions; it is known to those who catch the spirit, the energy, the Source.
Swamiji, I feel afraid to drop my ideas about God, because without them I feel like I may become blank or careless. How do I know the difference between sacred not-knowing and just being confused?
Listen. Sacred not-knowing is not dullness, vagueness, or carelessness. It is the courage to not convert the living Source into a dead mental conclusion. Confusion avoids clarity; sacred not-knowing is intensely available to become the truth. When the arrogance of “I know” becomes soft enough to see, “I have not yet become,” the door opens. Sit silently, relaxed, unclutched. Do not fight your thoughts, do not decorate them, do not claim them. Let the opinion-making machinery loosen. Then the Source shines by Itself.
In my day-to-day life, how do I actually see the wood instead of the elephant? When I am dealing with family, work, responsibilities, I immediately get caught in labels and reactions.
In every perception, ask yourself: am I seeing only the carved elephant, or am I seeing the wood? In every relationship, am I seeing only name, position, relation, expectation — or am I seeing the Source? The ordinary mind says, “This is my husband, my child, my boss, my subordinate,” and builds identity and reaction from those labels. That is short sight. Source-cognition is broad vision. Do not destroy the elephant; just wake up to the wood. Responsibilities can continue, but fear, greed, control, and ownership will not be aggravated in you when you are established in the Source.
Bhagavan, I am struggling with this: if argument cannot give the Atman, then should I stop studying, questioning, and trying to understand?
No. Do not reduce this to anti-intellectualism. It is not saying, “Do not know.” It is saying, “Do not make the knower dead through opinion.” It is not against study; it is against replacing becoming with collecting. Inquiry that takes you deeper is sacred. Premature conclusion is bondage. Argument cannot give the Atman, but sincere listening from the space of Oneness becomes revelation. Catch the spirit, not just the letter. Let understanding become transformation, not a certificate for the ego.
One thing is confusing me, Swamiji. Sometimes I feel I have devotion, but still I create guilt in myself and others. Does that mean even my devotion is only an opinion?
If devotion catches only the letter, form, and outer identity, it can create guilt. When you catch the spirit, you will never create guilt. Good opinions can bind as much as bad opinions if they keep you away from the Source. Devotional opinions also can bind if they become one more structure for ego. Don’t catch only the finger and miss the moon. Don’t catch only Nithyananda; catch Nithya Ananda, the Eternal Bliss. When devotion becomes energy, spirit, Source-cognition, it expands you into bliss.
When I say, “I understand the Self,” part of me knows I am still carrying sorrow and patterns. How can I be honest without feeling like a failure?
That honesty is not failure; it is the beginning of real knowledge. Collecting words, systems, scriptures, rituals, logic — all this can happen, and still the sorrow may not be crossed if you have not known the Self by becoming. The ego wants even Brahman as a visiting card. But the sincere being says, “I know many things, yet I have not become.” That confession is higher than decorated scholarship. Use this looking itself as intelligence: is this a living cognition, or only a mental label? If it is a label, drop the false knower and return again and again to integrity, Oneness, and the living Source.
I welcome this verse as a sword directly cutting the root of false knowing. Listen. “yasyāmataṁ tasya mataṁ, mataṁ yasya na veda saḥ; avijñātaṁ vijānatāṁ, vijñātam avijānatām.” The one who has not made It into an opinion has known It; the one who thinks, “I know It,” does not know. It remains unknown to those who catch the letter, the form, and keep building opinions; it is known to those who catch the spirit, the energy, the Source.
Understand this truth. The moment I make the Ultimate into “my opinion,” I have reduced the Source into an object inside My small mental frame. The Source is not available to the mind which is busy carving opinions about every intricacy of life. Whether the opinion is good or bad, for or against, devotional or argumentative, the very act of making It into one more thought keeps Me inside the Maya Matrix. I have explained: developing more and more opinions about the intricacies of life keeps the feeling that this Matrix is real. When I see the wooden sculpture of an elephant and start believing the elephant is real, fear and greed begin. Owning it, controlling it, fighting it, being frightened by it — all that begins only because I missed the wood, the Source material.
This verse says exactly that. If I see only the carved elephant, I will go on adding opinion after opinion. “This tusk is beautiful, that leg is dangerous, this shape is mine, that shape is against Me.” But if I see the wood, the Source, all fears and greed about the elephant do not get aggravated in Me. I am not caught in the elephant; I am established in the wood. In the same way, when I catch the form, the letter, the outer identity, I miss Brahman. When I catch the spirit, the energy, the Source, I know — but that knowing does not become the arrogance of “I know.” It remains as living cognition, not dead conclusion.
I tell you, this is why I insist: don’t catch the form; catch the energy. Don’t catch Nithyananda, catch Nithya Ananda. Catch the Eternal Bliss. Catch the spirit. When I catch only the finger pointing to the moon, I miss the moon. If I hold on to the finger and hand, the next generation also will miss the moon. When I catch the spirit, I will never create guilt. When I catch the letter, I will always have guilt. The letter freezes; the spirit expands. The form changes; the energy is the living presence. The opinion belongs to the letter; the realization belongs to the spirit.
Let Me place this in the Upanishadic space.
Story
After the devas won a great victory over the asuras, they started celebrating as if the whole cosmos had been saved by their personal talent. Agni was glowing with pride, Vayu was moving about with pride, Indra was standing like the CEO of heaven. At that moment, an extraordinary Yaksha appeared before them—silent, radiant, unknown. The devas were disturbed. They sent Agni first. Agni went and declared, ‘I am Jātavedas. I can burn anything in this universe.’ The Yaksha placed a tiny blade of grass before him and said, ‘Burn this.’ Agni tried with all his fire, but the grass did not even become warm. Agni returned quietly. Then Vayu went. ‘I can blow away anything,’ he announced. The Yaksha placed the same blade of grass and said, ‘Move this.’ Vayu blew with all his force, but the grass did not move. Vayu also returned humbled. Finally Indra went. The Yaksha disappeared. In that space, Devi Uma Haimavati appeared, shining with the brilliance of pure knowledge, and revealed to Indra: ‘That was Brahman. By Brahman’s power alone you gained victory.’ Only when their proud knowing collapsed did the devas become ready to receive the truth.
Only when proud knowing collapses, the receiving becomes possible. The verse is not asking Me to become ignorant; it is asking Me to drop the arrogance that turns knowing into possession.
Listen carefully. “The one who has not made It into an opinion has known It.” This does not mean I should be dull, vague, confused, or careless. No. It means I should not convert the living Source into a dead mental conclusion. There is a difference between knowing by becoming and knowing by collecting. I can collect words, systems, scriptures, rituals, sciences, logic, and still stand in sorrow if I have not known the Self. I can master name, speech, mind, will, contemplation, understanding, strength, food, water, fire, space, memory, hope, prana — and still need to be led to Bhuma, the Infinite. The courage to know what I have not yet become is the beginning of real knowledge.
I will bring that space here.
Story
Narada once went to Sanatkumara with great sincerity. Understand, Narada was not an ordinary seeker. He had mastered the Vedas, Itihasas, Puranas, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, music, rituals, logic, politics—so many branches of knowledge. If he had printed a visiting card, both sides would not have been enough! But when he stood before Sanatkumara, he did not behave like a scholar displaying his certificates. He said, ‘Bhagavan, I know all these mantras and sciences, but I do not know the Self. I have heard that one who knows the Self crosses sorrow. I am in sorrow. Please take me across.’ That one honest confession opened the door. Sanatkumara then led him step by step—from name, speech, mind, will, contemplation, understanding, strength, food, water, fire, space, memory, hope, prana—towards Bhuma, the Infinite. Narada’s greatness was not in the list of what he knew; it was in the courage to see what he had not yet become.
That honest confession is higher than decorated scholarship. When “I know” becomes soft enough to see “I have not become,” the door opens.
This verse is a direct blow to the ego’s favorite game: storing the Ultimate as a certificate. The ego wants even Brahman to become a visiting card. Name, relation, position — “I am son of so and so, husband of so and so, brother of so and so, father of so and so, boss of so and so, subordinate of so and so.” These are the answers the ordinary mind gives when asked, “Who are you?” All these are labels. They are opinions accumulated around the being. When I hold these labels as Myself, I miss the Source. When I keep building My identity from these relational definitions, I have not even begun to look broadly at life.
I have said, even short-sightedness is not just related to the eye; it is related to the mental pattern which does not allow Me to look at life in a broad way. This verse cures that spiritual short-sightedness. Opinion is short sight. Source-cognition is broad vision. Opinion sees a small piece and declares, “This is all.” Source-cognition sees the wood behind the elephant, the energy behind the form, the spirit behind the letter.
Let Me laugh with you for a moment.
Joke
Some people say, ‘Swamiji, I know Brahman.’ I tell them, ‘Then surely it is not Brahman—maybe your neighbor’s Wi‑Fi password. Brahman is not something your ego can save in a folder called “My Enlightenment”.’
Humor breaks the stiffness of ego. If “My Enlightenment” becomes a folder, the living Source has already been reduced into memory.
Understand. The verse says, “mataṁ yasya na veda saḥ” — the one who thinks “It is known as my thought, my conclusion, my definition,” does not know. The very claim “I have completely captured It” is the proof that It is missed. Not because the Ultimate is far away, but because I am trying to hold It in the wrong mechanism. Argument cannot give this Atman. “naiṣā tarkeṇa matirāpaneyā” — this Atman cannot be attained by argument; It is truly known only when taught by a person who is living it, who has become it. Only when I listen from the space of living realization, only when I move from verbal grasp to being, the real cognition starts happening.
The Upanishad is not against understanding. It is against arrogance masquerading as understanding. It is not against scripture. It is against catching the letter and missing the spirit. In Vedanta, the Rishis are courageous. They declare that certain ways of living, the social law, can be updated. They are bold enough to say Smriti can be updated. But the ultimate revealed truth, the Shruti, points to the Source. If I catch the outer social form and miss the ultimate spirit, I have not understood the Rishis. If I catch the energy of the Upanishad, I become alive to the Source.
This is why I say, sit in an unclutched mood. Sit silently, relaxed. Unclutching is not laziness; it is not dullness. It is the refusal to be possessed by the continuous opinion-building machinery. In the unclutched space, I am not fighting with the elephant; I am not trying to own the elephant; I am not afraid of the elephant. I am available to see the wood. In that unclutched availability, the verse becomes not philosophy but initiation.
“Avijñātaṁ vijānatām” — It is unknown to those who think they know. These are the people who catch the letter, the form, and keep building opinions. They may even quote the right words, but if the words have become one more structure for ego, the Source is missed. “Vijñātam avijānatām” — It is known to those who do not convert It into egoic possession. They catch the spirit, the energy, the Source. Their not-knowing is not ignorance; it is living openness before the Infinite.
Let Me show this through another sacred mirror.
Story
Prajapati once announced that the Self is to be known, and both Indra, king of the devas, and Virochana, king of the asuras, came to learn. Prajapati first asked them to look into a vessel of water and see their reflection. They saw the body and thought, ‘This is the Self.’ Virochana was satisfied immediately. He went back and taught the asuras, ‘Decorate the body, feed the body, enjoy through the body—that is the Self.’ Indra also started to leave, but on the way a doubt hit him: ‘If the body is blind, the Self becomes blind? If the body is injured, the Self is injured? If the body dies, the Self dies? This cannot be the truth.’ He returned to Prajapati. Again and again, after long years of discipline, each time Indra refused to settle for a shallow answer. He returned with deeper questioning until Prajapati revealed the deathless, bodiless, fearless Self. Virochana carried away a conclusion; Indra carried a living seeking.
A conclusion can be carried away quickly; living seeking returns again and again. The verse praises that refusal to settle for the shallow answer.
See, when I settle for the reflection and say, “This is the Self,” I have caught the form. When doubt awakens — not argumentative doubt, but the powerful refusal to accept a shallow answer — I return to the Source. The verse does not condemn inquiry. It condemns premature conclusion. Inquiry that takes Me deeper is sacred. Opinion that freezes Me is bondage.
This is the subtle line: argument is not realization, but sincere listening in the presence of living truth is a doorway. When Paramashiva says, “Listen dear, established in yoga, the uniting space of Oneness with Me,” the first instruction is not “argue”; it is “listen” from Oneness. Established in yoga, in the uniting space, listening becomes revelation. Without that Oneness, even the highest words become only sound. With that Oneness, even one statement expands into the whole truth.
I tell you, the highest words cannot be uttered continuously unless the disciple is in ecstasy. The receiving space matters. If I sit with the tightness of “I already know,” even Brahman becomes one more mental word. If I sit in the ecstasy of “Let Me become,” the same word becomes fire, air, space, memory, prana moving Me toward the Infinite. Bliss opens Me up, bliss expands Me, and only in that expanding consciousness can the bridge with God happen.
Do not reduce this verse to anti-intellectualism. It is not saying, “Do not know.” It is saying, “Do not make the knower dead through opinion.” It is not saying, “Do not study.” It is saying, “Do not replace becoming with collecting.” It is not saying, “Do not speak.” It is saying, “Do not speak prajna-vada — wise-sounding words — while grieving, confused, and caught in the ordinary meaning.” When Bhagavan straight away comes to the truth about life and death, He does not put new ideas into Arjuna; He opens the truth that the soul is indestructible, eternal. The highest truth is not a decorative opinion. It is meant to transform the way I stand inside existence.
Again, understand this word: Source. When I experience only the five elements and the intricacies of the five, the Source material is hidden. Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space, Ether — all the perceived dimensions can become the carved elephant. If I am enamored by them or agitated about them, I am still inside the Matrix. The Upanishad pushes Me beyond being trapped by appearances. It does not deny perception; it asks Me to see what perception is made of. It does not ask Me to destroy the elephant; it asks Me to wake up to the wood.
This is why “unknown to those who know” is not a contradiction; it is the Upanishadic precision. The knowing which says, “I have captured, I have concluded, I have reduced, I have framed,” is not knowing. The not-knowing which remains open, unclutched, listening, established in Oneness, catching the spirit, seeing the Source — that is knowing. The ego’s certainty is blindness. The being’s openness is light.
Let Me puncture the ego’s seriousness once more.
Joke
The moment you say, ‘I have understood the Ultimate completely,’ Maya immediately gives you a PhD certificate, frames it nicely, and keeps you permanently in kindergarten.
When Maya certifies completion, incompletion is already protected. Real completion does not need to stand on self-declaration.
Now bring the verse into your own inner space. Whenever I say “I know Brahman,” look: is it a living cognition or a mental label? Whenever I say “I understand the Self,” look: has sorrow been crossed, or is the mind carrying a decorated conclusion? Whenever I say “I have understood the scripture,” look: am I catching the letter and producing guilt, or catching the spirit and expanding into bliss? This looking itself is the beginning of intelligence.
If I have only attention, it is different from love. Getting attention is different from getting love. In the same way, getting spiritual vocabulary is different from getting realization. Even when the Divine tests Me, again and again I come back to integrity, again and again I come back to Oneness, again and again I come back to the lifestyle revealed in Vedas and Agamas. That returning is not an opinion. That returning is living knowledge.
This verse is a lifestyle instruction. In every perception, I can ask: am I seeing the elephant or the wood? In every relationship, am I seeing labels or Source? In every scripture, am I catching the letter or the spirit? In every spiritual experience, am I creating a certificate or deepening into unclutched Oneness? If I use everything to build the “I know” personality, Brahman remains unknown. If I use everything to drop the false knower, Brahman is known as Source.
The great danger is subtle. Good opinions can bind as much as bad opinions. Devotional opinions can bind as much as negative opinions if they keep Me away from the Source. Whether I am enamored or agitated, if I am still seeing only the elephant, I am within Maya Matrix. The Upanishad wants Me to see the wood. The verse is not interested in My polished descriptions of the elephant. It is interested in whether I have woken up from the elephant.
So I tell you: be courageous like the Rishis. Do not be afraid to update the outer patterns when they are only social law. Do not be afraid to drop the hand when the moon is to be seen. Do not be afraid to say, “I know many things, but I have not yet become the Self.” That humility is not weakness. That humility is the intelligence which prevents the Ultimate from becoming one more opinion.
When the verse says, “It is known to those who do not know,” it is calling Me into a higher honesty. Not the ignorance which does not seek; not the laziness which avoids discipline; not the confusion which refuses clarity. It is the sacred not-knowing which is free from arrogance, free from conclusion, free from the need to possess. In that sacred space, listening flowers. Oneness flowers. Bliss opens. The bridge with God happens.
Sit silently with this. Sit in a relaxed way, in an unclutched mood. Let all opinions about Brahman, Self, Source, form, letter, achievement, failure, scholarship, ignorance — let them all loosen. Do not fight. Do not decorate. Do not claim. Catch the spirit. Catch the energy. Catch Nithya Ananda. When the mental opinion stops occupying the throne, the Source shines by Itself.
This is the core of the verse: The Ultimate is not unknown because It is absent; It is unknown because the ego’s “I know” is too noisy. It is known when that noise bows down. It is unknown to the collectors of conclusions. It is known to the ones who refuse to reduce It. It is missed by those who catch the letter and form. It is received by those who catch the spirit, the energy, the Source.
I declare: let this verse not become one more opinion in you. Let it become the fire that burns opinion-making itself. Let it become the air that moves you out of narrowness. Let it become the space where you sit unclutched. Let it become the remembrance that behind every carved form is the Source. Then “I know” disappears as arrogance, and knowing shines as being. That is the Upanishadic knowing. That is the knowing which cannot be possessed, but can be lived.