The Dattatreya Upanishad is divided into three khandas or sections. The first section opens with the creator god Brahma asking the god Vishnu (Narayana) how to overcome samsara, the cycle of birth-death-rebirth. Vishnu replies that he is Dattatreya (Datta), the Supreme God and one should meditate on Vishnu in the form of Dattatreya to free oneself from samsara. After following Vishnu's advice of meditating upon him as Dattatreya, asserts the text, Brahma realizes that the infinite and peerless Brahman is realized, as the residuum after one meditates neti, neti (not this, not this) negation process on the phenomenal universe.