One’s true nature is consciousness, the supreme. When the mind is extinguished in the Self, the [three] saktis, beginning with inch, which are said to exist, will completely cease, being [known to be] an unreal superimposition upon the perfectly pure consciousness that is one’s true nature.

—Muruganar, “Verse 42,” Guru Vachaka Kovai, p. 24

One of the commonest questions is: “Why if I am the Self always, do I not now know the Self?”

The account provided  here points to the Vedantic conception of superimposition—the “laying” of the non-self “over” the Self. There are, in particular, three veiling powers: iccha, jnana, and kriya. David Godman, the editor, tells us that iccha sakti refers to “the power of desiring,” jnana sakti to “the power of knowing,” and kriya sakti to “the power of doing.”

These three can be investigated thanks to the direct path teaching of Sri Atmananda. Specifically, we can ask about two senses in which “existence” is spoken of in Advaita Vedanta. In the first sense, X is said to exist just in case it does not depend in any way on some other (ergo, it has “independent existence”). In the second sense, X can be said to exist just in case it’s some thing. 

Therefore, we can ask: “Do any of these three powers exist in either, or both, of these senses?” In fact, we can get more even granular by asking:

—In direct experience, can a desire be found, and can a desirer be discovered?

—In direct experience, can objective knowledge be found, and is there a knowing one (a knower)?

—In direct experience, can an action be found, and is there a doer? 

What will be discovered is that desire, objective knowledge, and action do not exist in the first sense, since all are “mere appearances” arising within Consciousness. And it will be found that the desirer, the knower, and the doer do not exist in the first sense (they’re also mere appearances or arisings) as well as in the second sense inasmuch as there’s “no thing there” in the first place. There is, in brief, no such thing as a desirer, a knower, or a doer.

Consequently, superimposition itself is nonexistent. Indeed, the veiling of the Self never actually happened. What is true is that he Self always stands alone in its own glory. Know thus.