Āṉma-Viddai

for each one of us we ourself are always indubitably real and clearly known.

Not only do we exist, but our existence and awareness of our existence are indubitably real.

Some philosophers confuse themselves so much with their convoluted reasonings that they may doubt or even deny the existence of any such thing as ‘self’ or ‘I’, but even a little clear reflection will show the absurdity of such a view, because in order to doubt or deny the existence of ourself we must exist.

knowing oneself is extremely easy.

If we ourself did not exist, we could not be aware of our own existence, nor could we be aware of the seeming existence of anything else, so the fact that we are aware is conclusive proof of our own existence as awareness.

Because we are so interested in being aware of other things, we tend to overlook our fundamental awareness of our own existence, ‘I am’, but even when we overlook it, it is still existing and shining clearly within us as our own reality, and it is what we always actually are, so we never cease to be aware of it.

Therefore, though the term ‘self’ is often used as a noun, it would be more accurate and helpful to consider it to be a pronoun and to use it accordingly, because a noun identifies a particular thing or kind of thing, so it has a meaning independent of the context in which it is used, whereas ‘self’ on its own does not identify any particular thing

Are a table and itself two different things? Are you and yourself two different things? Am I and myself two different things? No, obviously not, so there is no such thing as a ‘self’ other than the thing whose self it is. Everything is itself, and nothing has any ‘self’ that is other than itself.

Whatever actually exists must exist independent of all other things, which means that it must be aware of its own existence.