Krishna now shifts from physical to epistemological qualities of the Self. It is avyakta (unmanifest — not perceptible to the senses), achintya (unthinkable — not fully graspable by the discursive mind), and avikarya (unchangeable — not subject to any modification). These three attributes together indicate that the Self lies beyond the reach of ordinary knowing. Shankara sees this as pointing to the Self's nature as pure awareness, which cannot be made into an object of perception or thought because it is the very subject doing the perceiving and thinking. Ramanuja holds that the soul is 'unmanifest' not because it is identical with formless Brahman but because it is too subtle for material perception — yet it is real, personal, and knowable through devotion and God's grace. Madhva agrees the soul is beyond sensory perception but insists it can be known through scripture and divine revelation. The conclusion — 'you should not grieve' — ties the metaphysics back to the existential situation on the battlefield. This is not philosophy for its own sake but philosophy as medicine: once the nature of the Self is truly understood, grief for the body's destruction becomes untenable. Vivekananda taught that what is unthinkable to the mind is not unknowable — it is knowable through direct experience, through the stilling of thought, through meditation.