Verse 2.410

Sanskrit text and transliteration:

नैतदस्ति न नास्तीदं द्वयोर्मोहोद्भवत्वतः ।
न सत्तन्नासदित्येवं प्राह विश्वेश्वरोऽपि हि ॥ ४१० ॥

naitadasti na nāstīdaṃ dvayormohodbhavatvataḥ |
na sattannāsadityevaṃ prāha viśveśvaro'pi hi || 410 ||

English translation of verse 2.410:

Since the two modes of our speaking as “This is not existent” and “This is not non-existent] have their origin in ignorance, the Lord of the world, too, has said: “It (Brahman) is not said to be existent or non-existent.”

Notes:

If the world which exists is illusory, Brahman also, it may be argued, is illusory because it is existent like the world. But this argument is wrong. So long as there is avidyā, we sometimes speak of the world as existent and at other times as non-existent. But the world which we see cannot be characterized as existent, for it is subject to contradiction. The world as such ceases to be when Brahman, its substratum, is realized. Nor can the world be characterized as non-existent, for what is cognized can never be dismissed as non-existent. In short, the world which is viewed sometimes as existent and at other times as non-existent is not eternal. But Brahman which is eternal is, as stated in the Bhagavadgītā (XIII, 12), neither existent (sat) nor non-existent (asat). Being different from the gross and the subtle (mūrtāmūrta-bhinnaṃ), it can never be characterized as sat or asat.