Ativadi in classical tradition is one who tell the truth and only truth. The concept of ativadi is dealth with in Mundaka and Chandogya Upanishads. He is the one who has realized the truth, and has acquired the ability to say nothing but the truth. It is said that one knowing the vital force has no need to go beyond anything in his talk. The reason for this is that the enlightened man does not see anything, does not hear anything, does not cognize anything apart from the self, and therefore he does not go beyond anything in his talk.
In the seventh chapter of Chandogya Upanishad it is said
that the vital force itself become all. ‘Anyone who is such, seeing thus, reflecting
thus, and knowing thus, transcends all in his speech. Should anyone say to him,
‘You are transcending the limits of your speech’, he should agree and say, ‘Yes,
I am transcending’. He need not hide. A distinction is made between one who
knows only the pranah (vital air) and one who has realized the infinite.
One who has knowledge of the infinite or the highest truth, indeed, transcends speech, in reality. The knower of the vital force does not transcend speech. His transcendence of speech is in relation to others only. But the real transcender of speech is the one who knows the highest Truth beyond all other things. The vital force in the body is not the self but an important assistant of the self. Being very close to the self, it gets much power, which makes others misunderstood that the vital force itself is the real self.