All of the Gods proclaim it, Goddess Saraswati proclaims it, Lord Shiva proclaims it, the tantric texts teach it, the Vedas and Upanishads themselves unceasingly teach it that the only way to describe his unfathomable glory is by saying it is not this, it is not this.
In the last verse, Tulasidas proclaims that his attempt to describe Shri Rama is comparable a small piece of cotton in a hurricane, this is entirely in the spirit of the Upanishads. The Kena Upanishad particularly comes to mind, which says, ‘if you think you know, you do not know.’ In the verse below, Tulasidas quotes the famous vedic negation, ‘neti neti’, which translates as not this, not this. Shri Rama, who is none other than Brahman, is beyond our analytically oriented minds, the supreme reality can only be ‘known’ by the soul, the intellect is not not capable of describing it. Therefore, the vedic method of not this, not this, reminds us to go beyond our simple thoughts and live in awe of God’s magnificence. God can only be realised by the heart, and if Tulasidas’s magnificent work is a piece of cotton in a hurricane, this work is not not even a speck of dust!
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