The Atman is the Sanskrit word, for Soul the Self. The Atman or Soul is present in the form of consciousness.
Thus, Atman or Soul or the Self or consciousness or awareness is one and the same thing.
This universe in which you exist is merely an illusion created out of single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul which is present in the form of consciousness.
The experience of birth, life, death, which happens within the universe is merely an illusion.
The form, time, and space are within the universe. Without form, time, and space there is no universe.
The universe is present only when the mind is present. The mind is present when ‘I’ is present.
On the standpoint of the Soul the Self, the universe is an illusion.
If the universe is merely an illusion, then the experience of birth, life, and death happen within the universe is an illusion.
If the universe is merely an illusion, then the form, time, and space are an illusion.
If the form, time, and space are merely an illusion, then the mind is an illusion.
If the mind is an illusion, then the ‘I’ is merely an illusion.
If the ‘I’ is merely an illusion then the substance and the witness of the ‘I’ which is the formless Soul alone is real and eternal.
Remember:~
Atman (Soul) is the Self. The ‘I’ is not Atman. There is a need to know ‘what is ‘I’ before indulging in the pursuit of truth. People, who hold the ‘Self’ as the ‘I’, are holding the dualistic illusion as a reality.
Dualist Gurus including and thinkers could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘formless witness.’ The 'I' was the witness. Their highest was the Jiva. One is so much attached to the 'I' that he does not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again one is unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real witness.
The dualist object: - If everything else is false then the statement I am Brahman is itself false, but when one says nonduality is false; there must be the awareness, consciousness, behind the very statement.
You will also go, die. One has to rely upon that which is permanent. The Soul, the witness of the ‘I’ alone is permanent. Anything that one says is a witnessed (waking), but there is the Soul, the witness (consciousness) there before any statement could be made.
They mean the body by “I", but it is the Soul, the witness of the ‘I’. The Soul is the real “Self ". the orthodox Advaitin and dualists did not, or could not analyze further than ‘I’ on this point because they thought the ‘I’ without the body as the Self. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
