The Advaitic notion of indescribability (Anirvacanīyatā) is central to its metaphysics and profoundly impacts its understanding of religious language. Advaita Vedānta posits that Brahman is the ultimate, non-dual reality – infinite, attributeless (nirguṇa), and beyond all conceptualization or linguistic categories.

Firstly, the phenomenal world (Māyā) itself is described as anirvacanīya. It is neither absolutely real (like Brahman) nor absolutely unreal (like a sky-flower). It appears real empirically but is ultimately illusory from the transcendental perspective. Language, designed to describe the empirically real or unreal, fails to capture this paradoxical, indefinable status of māyā.

Secondly, and more significantly for religious language, Brahman is anirvacanīya. Language functions through distinctions (subject-object, attributes, categories). Since Brahman is non-dual, without attributes, and beyond all distinctions, any attempt to describe it directly with words (e.g., "Brahman is good," "Brahman is creator") necessarily limits it, making it an object, which it is not. Hence, Advaita employs neti, neti (not this, not this) to point towards Brahman by negating all empirical attributes.

In this context, religious language, whether in scriptures or devotional hymns, is seen as provisional and symbolic. When it speaks of Saguna Brahman (Brahman with attributes), it is providing a conceptual handle for the limited human mind to grasp the formless Absolute. These descriptions (e.g., God as omnipotent, omniscient creator) are empirically useful for devotion and guiding practice, but they are not the ultimate truth of Brahman. True realization transcends all language, leading to an intuitive, non-conceptual experience (anubhava) of Brahman's indescribable nature. Language acts as a ladder, to be discarded once the truth is apprehended.