Ramana Maharshi states, “The Self is known to everyone, but not clearly.” All that’s needed is right here.

The Self cannot be an object, nor can it be conjoined to one. This is because–to take but one distinguishing factor–the Self is continuously present whereas all objects appear and then disappear. Therefore, the Self is not a perception, a sensation, energy, a thought, a feeling, or a desire. Furthermore, because space and time are both objects (they are technically just thoughts), the Self is neither of space nor of time, nor is it in space or time.

Then how is the Self “known to everyone,” if it is definitively not any object at all?

I can know the Self by tuning into the sense of I on its own. To tune into the sense of I is, at once, to let go of all objects. This is the specific meaning of “turning inward” or of “the inward turn.”

Interestingly, when I turn inward in order to know Myself, I need (as it were) to pass through two stages. In the first stage, I am looking for an individuated, or ego, I. Is the I to which I’m attending most certainly an ego I? If it is, then it will need to be (minimally) permanent and limited. Do I find any ego I–that is, myself–that answers to this description?

No. I don’t find a permanent, localized I. If I go looking for anything that’s limited, then I’m back to square 1: all I discover are (more) objects. A thought is limited, a sensation is limited, and so on.

The more deeply and closely I attend to Myself alone, the more I naturally come to the second (and final) stage. Realizing that the ego I is nonexistent, I’m naturally curious: “Then what is the very nature of this I to which I’m so earnestly attending?” Whatever it is cannot be impermanent or limited. The recognition–the Self’s recognition of Itself–is that this very Self is permanent and unlimited.

Hence, Ramana Maharshi’s statement really means: “The Self is known to everyone, but not clearly,” except in the case of the jnani for whom the Self is known clearly. And what the jnani knows is that being the Self is identical with knowing the Self and that knowing the Self is identical, in fact, with loving the Self.