neti neti
neti neti phrase: in Vedic and subsequent Hindu philosophy, the doctrine of "not this, not that", which holds that Brahman (the Supreme Being, God) has absolutely no specific characteristics and cannot be described in positive terms.
Phrase
neti neti
- In Vedic and subsequent Hindu philosophy, the doctrine of "not this, not that", which holds that Brahman (the Supreme Being, God) has absolutely no specific characteristics and cannot be described in positive terms.
- And so: The indication of Brahman is Neti, Neti — Not this, Not this, for beyond saying Neti, Neti, there is nothing else possible — for It is Truth beyond Truth1970, Rohit Mehta, The Call of the Upanishads (1999 edition), p. 257 (quoting the Upanishadic figure, Ajatasatru of Kasi)
- The multiethnic crowd wore gym clothes, traditional Indian garb and a few political T-shirts. […] [M]ost said they were drawn by the mix of yoga and politics — and a chance to say neti-neti to President Bush.2004 July 20, Michael Ordona, “Going to the mat for Kerry”, in Los Angeles Times, retrieved 22 Oct 2019
Forms of neti neti
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Questions about neti neti
- What does neti neti mean?
- Neti neti means in Vedic and subsequent Hindu philosophy, the doctrine of "not this, not that", which holds that Brahman (the Supreme Being, God) has absolutely no specific characteristics and cannot be described in positive terms.
- What part of speech is neti neti?
- Neti neti is a phrase.
Words near neti neti in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: neti neti (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “neti neti.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/neti_neti. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.