settled matter that release consists in the annihilation of the I, the
same man would move away as soon as release were only hinted at. "When I
myself have perished, there still persists some consciousness different
from me;" to bring this about nobody truly will exert himself.

'Moreover the very existence of consciousness, its being a consciousness
at all, and its being self-luminous, depend on its connexion with a Self;
when that connexion is dissolved, consciousness itself cannot be
established, not any more than the act of cutting can take place when
there is no person to cut and nothing to be cut. Hence it is certain
that the I, i.e. the knowing subject, is the inward Self.'

This scripture confirms when saying 'By what should he know the knower?'
(Bri. Up. II, 4, 15); and Smriti also, 'Him who knows this they call the
knower of the body' (Bha. Gi. XIII, 1). And the Sutrakara also, in the
section beginning with 'Not the Self on account of scriptural statement'
(II, 3, 17), will say 'For this very reason (it is) a knower' (II, 3,
18); and from this it follows that the Self is not mere consciousness.

What is established by consciousness of the 'I' is the I itself, while
the not-I is given in the consciousness of the not-I; hence to say that
the knowing subject, which is established by the state of consciousness,
'I know,' is the not-I, is no better than to maintain that one's own
mother is a barren woman. Nor can it be said that this 'I,' the knowing
subject, is dependent on its light for something else. It rather is
self-luminous; for to be self-luminous means to have consciousness for
one's essential nature. And that which has light for its essential
nature does not depend for its light on something else. The case is
analogous to that of the flame of a lamp or candle. From the
circumstance that the lamp illumines with its light other things, it