What we experience in our entire life is in reality Brahman and this is precisely your true self. Inquiry of your true self(Atma Vichara) = Inquiry of Brahman(Brahma Vichara)= Inquiry of everything in the universe(Sarva Vichara). Inquiry leads to knowledge. So knowledge of your true self = knowledge of Brahman = knowledge of the reality of everything in the universe. Everything in the universe, everything within time and everything which transcends time is indeed Brahman.

This very self is Brahman and this self has 4 aspects. The 4 aspects of the self is explained stepwise as follows:

Step 1: The existence of anything depends on its knowability. Unless a thing is knowable(at some time: past, present or future) in some way(see,hear,touch,smell or think/read/infer(books,thoughts,science,hypotheses,instruments,etc) about it — it must reveal itself to our senses in some way) by somebody somewhere, or atleast has a possibility to be known, it is meaningless/purposeless to talk about the existence of such a thing. Existence and knowability go together all the time. It may not happen that a thing exists but can never be known. Counter Argument: The Sun has intrinsic existence, irrespective of whether it is knowable or not. Ans: How do you know/claim that? The only reason we are able to speak about the Sun(it can be replaced by anything “X”) is because it is “principle knowable/knowable in principle”. Suppose ”X” cannot be defined, nobody can defined it, it cannot be investigated and known, yet it still has intrinsic existence. Then it does to make sense to even talk about “X”(it can just be anything). To speak of the existence of anything meaningfully, it must be in some sense available for experience of something. pramatta=knower, prameyam(or prameyattvam)=object of knowledge(knowable), pramana=source/instruments of knowledge, prama=the knowledge itself. For a thing to exist, in any meaningful sense, it must be a prameyam.

Step 2: Knowability of anything depends on the knower. There can be no knowledge/knowability without a knower. Prameyam depends on pramatta. There is no question of knowing otherwise. Example: A dream depends entirely on the dreamer. It has no intrinsic existence apart from the dreamer. Combining step 1 and step 2, existence of anything depends on the knower. Counter Argument: Gravity existed long before any living thing existed — that could feel the effect of gravity. Ans: It needn’t be knowable by anybody/anything at that point of time. It should only be “principle knowable/knowable in principle”. If there was a knower at that point, it would have been known. So gravity exists and is knowable.

Step 3: The knower depends on consciousness. Any kind of knowledge depends on awareness/consciousness. Unless you have awareness, you don’t know anything. Pramatta depends on chit(consciousness — you the Atman). Consciousness when deployed some instrument of knowledge becomes the knower(consciousness by itself is not the knower). Consciousness(Atman) in conjunction with the mind and sense organs becomes a knower(pramatta).

Step 4: That which depends on something else has a dependent existence(mithyanam(falsity)) Example: A wooden table is considered false as it has a dependent existence on wood. Without wood, a wooden table cannot exist. With reference to this example(only), table=mithya(false) and wood=satyam(real) This means, pramatta and prameyam have no independent existence(from above steps), they are both mithya. Consciousness is only satyam. The big claim is that consciousness appears as the knower(in the form of mind and other instruments of knowledge) and the knowable(in the form of ‘all of this’ — the entire universe). Pramatta and prameyam are together referred to as Nama(name), Rupa(form) and Vyavahara(use). Another name for Nama,Rupa and Vyavahara is Maya.

Step 5: Pramatta and Prameyam come in pairs in the following three different types:

(i) The waker and the Jagrat=waking world.

(ii) The dreamer and the Swapna=dream world.

(iii) The deep sleeper and the Sushupti=blankness in deep sleep(deep sleep world).

The 4 aspects of the self will be described now.

(1)Sthula atma(Gross/physical) aspect of the self: Right now, you are the knower and all what you are experiencing now is Jagrat.

(2)Sukshma atma(subtle) aspect of the self: The dreamer, it is you but in a subtle aspect.

(3)Karana atma(causal) aspect of the self: The knower and the knowable are all resolved into one mass of blankness which we call deep sleep. Why is it called the causal aspect of the self? Because from that mass of blankness, dreams and waking state come out.

And now most importantly the fourth aspect:

(4)Turiya(literally means fourth, but it refers to consciousness) aspect of the self: The knower is consciousness and the knowable is consciousness in consciousness itself. The first three aspects are all false(both the knowers and knowables in these aspects). The fourth aspect alone is real. All of it is one unchangeable consciousness which you are — which projects itself in a waker and waking world; dreamer and dream world, and retreats into itself as a blankness of deep sleep; all throughout, one unchangeable consciousness that is called Turiya. Turiya is the reality about yourself(Atma)=reality about Brahman=reality about ‘all this’ — everything. Here everything is all the three types of Pramatta and Prameyam described above.