Who Or What Is The Self?

Who Or What Is The Self?

Within us there is a Being, the Self that observes all the activities of our waking hours. At night, when we enter the deep sleep state of consciousness, the Self remains constantly awake and in the morning, reports to us on our dream experiences and the blissful oblivion of sleep. It is therefore important to dwell on the question: Who or what is that Self?

Just as in a dream, a false knowledge, knower and known, appear in the waking state too, as the same process is in operation. In deep sleep, the knower, knowledge and the known are missing. In the same way, while experiencing the eternal Self in deep meditation, they cease to exist. Significantly, the different occurrences of the waking and dream states occur only with respect to the knower or ego; and since ego itself is spurious, nothing in fact ever happens.

Therefore, only the pure, eternal Self exists and there is no such thing as the universe other than the Self. There is never a time when the eternal Being is unknown and so you are always the Self and nothing but the Self--the infinite, pure Being.

Om Namah Shivay.