Covenant

वाचा (speech/word) is avoided because it activates Vāc theology: in Ṛgvedic and later Mīmāṃsā thought, Vāc is a cosmic principle of speech, and Mīmāṃsā holds the Veda’s very sound-form to be eternal (śabda-brahman) — a rich but unrelated doctrine that would distract from covenant’s relational-promise sense. नियमः is avoided because it is Patañjali’s second yogic limb (niyama: purity, contentment, austerity, study, devotion to Īśvara). संविद् (mutual understanding/compact) is the least technically encumbered available option, though it still requires explicit teaching as ‘God’s own binding promise,’ since it carries no inherent covenantal weight on its own.