While ultimate truth lies behind the sum total of the objective universe, some human minds boggle at any attempt to explain it with only the tools provided by reason. Ultimate truth is beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond intelligence, beyond imagination. Indeed, the highest idea is that ultimate truth transcends and includes time, causation and space, and thus can never be known in the same material sense as one traditionally 'understands' a given concept or object.
The universe does not simply possess consciousness, it is consciousness, and this consciousness is ultimate truth. The knowledge of ultimate truth springs from inquiry into the nature of the mind or universe. The knowledge of ultimate truth cannot be obtained in any other way.
Consciousness is without attributes and strictly impersonal. It is pure knowing itself. One has to hold consciousness to be the Ultimate Truth, so in comparison to consciousness, every other thing, including the universe, its distinctness, and the individuality of the living creatures are mere mirage created out of it. Consciousness is the effulgent cause of everything that exists and can possibly exist. Since it is beyond human comprehension, it is without any attributes, for assigning attributes to it would be distorting the true nature of consciousness.
Since all the attributes are product of consciousness the people who believe in the existence of attributed consciousness holds no water from the ultimate standpoint because all the attributes are mere mirage created out of consciousness, thus the sometime and space, and birth, life and death and idea of creator and creation are part of the mirage. The consciousness which is free from form, time and space is ultimate Truth.
When one tries to know the attributeless consciousness mentally from his attributed base, then he realizes all the attributes are created out of attributeless material and that material is consciousness, which real and eternal.
Self is the reflection of the consciousness in the realm of the mirage. Just like reflection of moon, in a pool of water. The universe also appears as such due to ignorance. Consciousness is eternal and unchangeable. It is due to ignorance the universe, which is mere mirage, is experienced as reality. Once the curtain of ignorance is lifted, and then there is no second thing exists other than consciousness. Thus, due to Self- Knowledge, an individual loses the sense of duality and achieves liberation from experiencing the duality as reality.
