Why Consciousness Is Ineffable: The Seeker Is the Sought

“Yato vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha”

— Taittiriya Upanishad

(“From which words return, along with the mind, not having attained it.”)

We live in a world obsessed with knowing — classifying, defining, describing. But there is one thing that forever eludes our grasp: Consciousness itself. Not because it’s hidden, but because it is too close, too intimate, too fundamental to be objectified. In this blog, we’ll explore why Consciousness is ineffable, why the seeker is a mirage, and how the Infinite forgets itself in order to remember.

The Illusion of the Seeker

We begin with a radical truth:

Even the one trying to know Consciousness is just a projection within it.

The “I” who is meditating, questioning, or seeking truth is not the ultimate subject — it is an appearance, a movement, a thought in Consciousness.

Just like a wave is not separate from the ocean, the seeker is not separate from the Infinite it seeks. The “I” that appears to search for Truth is part of the illusion.

This insight is deeply embedded in the Mandukya Upanishad, which declares:

> “Ayam ātmā brahma” — “This Self is Brahman.”

So long as we’re looking for it, we miss it. Why? Because the very act of looking implies a subject-object duality. And that duality is illusion.

How the Infinite Appears Finite

If Consciousness is truly infinite, how does it come to appear as limited forms — as you, me, the world?

The Chandogya Upanishad answers in poetic brevity:

> “Tat tvam asi” — “That Thou Art.”

You are not merely in the universe. You are the universe — temporarily localised in a finite body-mind, like a wave expressing the ocean.

But this finitude is only apparent, not real. A metaphor helps: Space is formless and infinite. But place a clay pot in it, and suddenly we talk of “inside space” and “outside space.” Has space changed? No. Only form has appeared.

This is Maya — the illusory power through which the One appears as many. The Infinite doesn’t become finite; it only appears so, much like a dream seems real until you wake up.

The Divine Amnesia

But why does the Infinite forget its nature?

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad reveals the heart of this mystery:

> “When there is duality, then one sees another, hears another... but when all has become the Self, what can one see, or hear, or know?”

This forgetting is not an accident — it's Lila, the Divine Play. The ocean becomes the wave, just to enjoy crashing on the shore. Consciousness manifests limitation to taste its own freedom. The forgetting is necessary, because only then can there be the joy of remembering.

It’s not a punishment. It’s an adventure.

The Paradox of Seeking

Now comes the turning point: the personal experience you shared, which resonates with ancient mystics and modern seekers alike.

> “Till the time I was looking for it, it couldn’t be found. Only when the one looking for it got erased, the infinite nature of Consciousness appeared.”

This is the paradox of spiritual seeking. As long as you’re trying to find it, you imply it is other. But when that trying ends — not in frustration, but in deep surrender — the illusion of separation collapses.

This is echoed in the Ashtavakra Gita:

> “You are not the body. You are not the mind. You are pure Awareness — the witness of all things.”

The seeker dissolves, and what remains is what always was — Awareness. Pure. Timeless. Effortless.

Why It Cannot Be Spoken

So, why is Consciousness ineffable?

Because it is not a thing.

It is not a perception, not a sensation, not a thought.

It is that in which all these appear.

Try to define it, and you limit it.

Try to observe it, and you divide yourself.

Try to describe it, and you reduce it.

You are like a flashlight trying to illuminate the sun — the very attempt is absurd. The mind cannot grasp it because the mind itself is a product of Consciousness.

> “You cannot see the seer, hear the hearer, know the knower.”

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Consciousness is that which knows all things, but which cannot be known as a thing.

It is like asking water to be wet from outside itself.

Living the Ineffable

So what do we do with this insight? How does it impact daily life?

This is not about escaping to a cave or chanting mantras endlessly. It’s about a deep inner shift — from seeking to seeing, from doing to being.

> There’s nothing to attain.

There’s nothing to become.

There’s only a remembering of what’s always been true.

You are not the doer.

You are not the thinker.

You are the still, aware Presence in which life unfolds.

When this is seen, not as an idea but as a direct realization, life takes on a new flavor — one of ease, spontaneity, and peace. The burden lifts. The inner war ends.

The Final Word Is Silence

The Upanishads don’t give you answers. They deconstruct the questioner.

They point you beyond the mind, into that sacred silence that cannot be thought — only lived.

So we return to where we began:

> “From which words return, along with the mind, not having attained it.”

— Taittiriya Upanishad

That which cannot be spoken — is what you are.

That which cannot be known — is your very Knowing.

And that which cannot be found —

Appears only when the seeker disappears.