The Self is not you because you are bound by the experience of birth, life, death, and the world. The experience of birth, life, death, and the world has nothing to do with the Soul, the Self. When you are not the Self, then how can you relate the Self with your experience of birth, life, death, and the world.
When the Soul wakes up with its own awareness, then you and your experience of the world becomes unreal same way as the dream becomes unreal when the waking takes place.
If you imagine within the dream it becomes unreal when the waking takes place. Your imagination within the dream remains a reality until the waking takes place. In the same way, your imagination within the waking remains reality till Advaitic wisdom dawns.
Advaitic Wisdom dawns when you realize you are not the Self, but the Self is the formless Soul. If you are not the Self then your imagination has no value because you are the false Self within the illusion (waking).
When the “Self” is not you then what is the use dropping the ignorance. It is not you who have to drop the ignorance but the Soul, the innermost Self has to wake up from the sleep of ignorance. When The Soul, the innermost Self wakes up, then the world in which you exist ceases to exist as a reality.
The one who is born lives and dies is not the ‘Self’. Your birth and death happen within the world. The world itself is the dualistic illusion or Maya created out of the Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness.
When the Soul, the Self is not limited to an individual then what is the use of ‘Who am ‘I’? -inquiry. What is the use of saying ‘I AM THIS’ and ‘I AM THAT’, without realizing what the ‘Self’ is in actuality?
WHO AM ‘I’? / I AM THAT’- teachings are only helpful in elementary stages.
For Self-realization, you must first know what this ‘Self’ is in actuality.
First, know What is this Self?
If something is true, is real, is constant, is a foundation of a nature that is unchanging, this can be called the Self.
The Soul, the Self is the fullness of consciousness without the illusory division of form, time, and space. The Soul is formless, timeless, and spaceless and eternal existence.
People have not penetrated the meaning of the ‘Self’. The meaning is that the ultimate truth is the Self, which is eternal existence.
You are impermanent because the ‘Self’ is not you but the ‘Self is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.
People have not penetrated the meaning of the ‘Self’. The meaning is that the ultimate truth is the Self, which is eternal existence.
You should not hold anything of the dualistic illusion (universe), which is impermanence. The world in which you exist makes you feel as though they are real but ultimately they are merely an illusion created out of the Soul, which is permanent.
You must cultivate to see the permanence (Soul) hidden by the impermanence (universe) as it is.
If you do this, you will be like one who sees a gem in the muddied water among the stones and rocks and waits for the water to settle before he skillfully plucks it out.
It is the same with cultivating the idea of the Soul, the Self hidden by the dualistic illusion (universe).: ~ Santthosh Kumaar