Guru Vachaka Kovai (The Garland of Guru’s Sayings) by Sri Muruganar - Verse 999

Though only those who have attained union with Self can know the nature or state of those who have attained that union, even they cannot express it to others but can only experience it. If it were then asked, “They cannot express it to others because for them there are no others, but cannot at least they themselves think of that state and how they attained it?”, the answer would be that even that is impossible, because for them the thinking mind or ego has been completely destroyed.

Moreover, in the state of absolute reality which is experienced by Jnanis, the state of ajnana is realized to be ever non-existent, and hence it is impossible for them to think of a method by which they passed from the ever-non-existent state of ajnana to the state of Jnana, the ever-existing and sole reality. That is why it is said in verse 413 of this work that it is impossible to trace the path by which Jnanis have reached Self. Since Self alone exists, there can be no place or state (such as ajnana) outside Self from which it can be reached and hence no path by which it can be reached. For a bird which is flying in the sky, there can be no path to reach the sky, and for a fish which is swimming in the water, there can be no path to reach the water. Since we are truly ever Self and Self alone, there can be no path or method for us to reach Self. However, so long as we think that we do not know ourselves to be Self, the sole existing reality, Sages have to advise us to try to find out who or what we really are. When we thus turn our attention towards ourselves in order to find out ‘Who am I?’, we will find that we are always nothing but Self alone, and that the seeming ego or individuality which we are wrongly taking to be ‘I’ was ever non-existent. In that state we cannot think that we have followed any path or method; we will merely realize that we are ever as we are, and that we have never undergone even the least change or movement of any kind.

Ulladu Narpadu - Anubandham - verse 31 Reality in Forty Verses - Supplement, pg.143 (pdf)

Note : 

The body and mind of a Jnani appear to be real only in the wrong outlook of ajnanis, who mistake themselves to be a body and mind. In the true outlook of the Jnani, who experiences himself as the space of mere consciousness, ''I am'', the body and mind are completely non-existent. Therefore, since the states of activity, namely waking and dream, the state of absorption (nishta) and the state of sleep are all states which pertain only to the body and mind, they are not at all known to the Jnani, just as the moving, standing and unyoked states of a cart are unknown to someone who is asleep in the cart.

There are three types of people – who know who they are, who are trying to find out who they are, who are oblivious of who they are. Read on from Gita Press Gorakpur Publications

Musings on Pure Vedanta 23 Mar 2021…part 2

How is the mind different from the intellect? Isn’t one part of the other? Both mind(manas) and intellect(buddhi) are part of the antahkaran, but the functions are different. Like you would behave differently as a husband and as a son. So intellect is that faculty which looks for rational reasoning and would question and argue. Manas is more the one that gets inputs from 5 sense organs and…