Investigation of the Self and Investigations of the 3 states of existence - waking, sleeping, deep sleep will revels the fact that, the self has a single unitary existence; its inherent nature is "Existence, Consciousness and Bliss". Universe and its contents are truly this at its core, but have seemingly forgotten about their true nature, in the present state of duality, which is caused by ignorance of the reality.
The nondual bliss is not an individual experience but it is the nature of the consciousness, which is the true self. Consciousness pervades all the three states thus the self is not limited to the waking entity or waking world or dream entity or dream world. Consciousness is the formless witness of all the three states and witnesses the waking or dream experience as a whole without the physical apparatus.
This uninterrupted Blissful state is achievable by every being in this life itself, once he/she realizes this and works towards discarding the "unreal” by discriminating between real and unreal mentally.
Consciousness, which is the “true self”, does not have birth, life and death. It has not taken birth and it will not take birth. It is beyond birth, life and death, it is immortal, and it is ancient, it does not perish when the mind, which is in the form of universe, perishes. The universe or mind is like the wave of the sea but not the sea, which is the “true self” or consciousness.
Consciousness cannot be cut, cannot be burnt, cannot be melted; neither can be dried. It is eternal, unmoveable, unlike the universe or mind which perishes. It is the cause of duality. It is the consciousness or self, which oversees the duality or the universe or the mind.
The consciousness projects itself as the inherent power of the universe. The self-i.e., Consciousness is the essence of all happenings and circumstances in, which the seeker attempts to know the truth of his true existence.
All experiences of individual actions, conducts happenings are within the universe are mere mirage created out of the true self, which is consciousness. All the conceivable actions and happenings are attributable to the true self in the form consciousness.
Consciousness is real and consciousness is both real and unreal, because the unreal universe or mind is erupted out of the real, which is consciousness. Whoever does not know the truth that the self is consciousness, falls prey to his ignorance and suffers by experiencing the illusory pain and pleasure as reality.
All the experiences of happenings such as birth, life and death, good or bad pain and pleasure, past ,present and future are mere mirage created out of consciousness itself . When wisdom dawns, the ignorance vanishes and the consciousness alone prevails as eternal reality.
Self-Knowledge is achievable without the grace of any guru or conceptual god or the mercy of some god men. Seeker has to simply wake up to the Reality [consciousness], which is the formless substance and witness of the unreality [universe of mind].
At the end of the quest the seeker becomes aware of the fact that, the true self is consciousness. There is nothing exists other than consciousness. Thus consciousness is Ultimate Reality.
Consciousness is being identified by another name "Nothingness", because truly if there was Nothingness in the end, there must be one "final witness" to that Nothingness.
