Self as Kuthastha/perpetually immovable

An Indian philosopher, no names, no pack drill, who referred to The Elusive Self of Advaita in a paper was probable speaking ironically, at least I hope so. On the other hand he might have been alluding to the impossibility of definition in the sense of setting the bounds to the concept of the self or demarcating it. Traditionally in Advaita the Self as one with Brahman would be anantam/boundless. Swami Satprakashananda in his book on the pramanas, Methods of Knowledge refers to the Self as kuthastha as an anvil. Kuthastha is also an epithet of Durga the consort of Shiva – perpetually immovable. Sankaracarya in his commentary on the Kena Upanisad (II.4) says that the Self is pratibodha videtam known with every moment of consciousness or each state of awareness. This he even extends to the state of deep dreamless sleep arguing (Upadesa Sahasri) that our knowledge on waking that we have been in that state is due to a bare or contentless self awareness which is never lost. Of course this goes against the chief tenet of empiricism which holds that we must have grounds for knowledge, or evidence of some sort. The Self does not require evidence, being, well, self-evident.

The search for wisdom is called atma vichara – inquiry into the Self. This resolves into an abiding with the Self as did the great modern sages Nisargadatta and Ramana Maharshi.