Every pramana functions with the help of, and presupposes, the existence of the Self. What is presupposed
by a pramana can never be proved by it. In the case of the Self, there is no need for any proof by any
pramana. As in the case of building, the existence of the superstructure is sufficient proof for the existence
of the foundation. The question of proof does not arise at all because the building cannot exist without
the foundation. The latter is presupposed by the former. The same explanation holds good in the case of the
Self. Every case of knowing is made possible by the Self, and every time we make any knowledge claim,
we presuppose the existence of the Self. So, the Self does not remain unknown. An object requires something
else to know it. However, being the ground of all experiences, there is really nothing apart from the Self to
know it. 'Where there is duality, there one perceives another, one smells another, one tastes another, one
contacts another, knows another, but where all this is Atman, who is there to think, touch and know whom?
Who can know him by all this is known?....Who can know the knower', declares a text from the
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad. (B.U. 4.5.15). Indeed, the normal mind is an instrument of knowledge for ordinary objects. Being a finite entity, it can never know the infinite, as the pen will never know or understand
the writer who is using it. More specifically, the Self being Self-luminous (Svaprakasa) is shining all the time,
revealing its presence. The term 'Svaprakasa' conveys the idea that while the Self reveals everything else,
it itself is not revealed by anything. (Katha Upanishad 2.2.15; Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.9.). We
have seen in the earlier sections of chapter that the Self is revealing all the time; at the waking level,
at the dream level and at the deep sleep level. The Self reveals because that it is its nature. The Self is
eternal light. It reveals the world, the body, the senses, and the mind. Even in deep sleep, when the mind,
senses and body are absent, the Self is still revealing. It is like fire, where the burning capacity manifests
when something flammable, like a piece of wood, is brought near it. But unlike fire, the revelation of the Self
is always manifest because it reveals not only the presence of objects, as in the case of waking and dream states, but also he absence of objects, as in the case of deep sleep. The power of revelation of the Self is manifest in the presence as well as the absence of objects.
contd.,
Arunachala Siva.