The teacher uses the methodology of apavāda vākya. This is the denial of the previous lesson in a continuum of increasingly subtle meanings. It is a game of lakṣaṇas (definitions and propositions) so that the meaning slowly shifts from dual to non-dual. In this way, the listener is led to the truth step by step.

For example, a certain wording usually has a double meaning. The directly visible (mukhyārtha) or literal (vācyārtha) meaning, and thus the lakṣyārtha. In the methodology, the superficial apparent meaning is abandoned, and the immanent meaning is taken up.

It is up to the teacher to uncover the meaning by providing the means of knowledge of words (śabda-pramāṇa) in the right way. It is up to the student to let the meaning do its work in his mind.

This is an ingenious and subtle process in Vedānta because temporarily valid meanings in the methodology are re-released in the process (apavāda vākya). This takes some getting used to when newcomers start taking lessons. But ignorance has many layers, which have to be exposed layer by layer and then unmasked. In the end, everything has to be let go in the freedom of being, including the concepts of vedānta.

This continues until the self-inquirer knows that he or she is the only and deepest meaning for himself (tādātmya). Tādātmya means to ask the crucial question: What do I see myself as? This confronts me with the fact that I have to realize the deepest meaning.