The " Self " is the transcendent and permanent principle of which the manifested being, the human being, for example, is only a transient and contingent modification, a modification which, moreover, can in no way affect the principle, as will be explained more fully in what follows. The " Self," as such, is never individualized and cannot become so, for since it must always be considered under the aspect of the eternity and immutability which are the necessary attributes of pure Being, it is obviously not susceptible of any particularization, which would cause it to be "other than itself." Immutable in its own nature, it merely develops the indefinite possibilities which it contains within itself, by a relative passing from potency to act through an indefinite series of degrees. Its essential permanence is not thereby affected, precisely because this process is only relative, and because this development is, strictly speaking, not a development at all, except when looked at from the point of view of manifestation, outside of which there can be no question of succession, but only of perfect simultaneity, so that even what is virtual under one aspect, is found nevertheless to be realized in the "eternal present." As regards manifestation, it may be said that the "Self " develops its manifold possibilities, indefinite in their multitude, through a multiplicity of modalities of realization, amounting, for the integral being, to so many different states, of which states one alone, limited by the special conditions of existence which define it, constitutes the portion or rather the particular determination of that being which is called human individuality. The " Self " is thus the principle by which all the states of the being exist, each in its own domain; and this must be understood not only of the manifested states of which we have just been speaking, whether individual like the human state or supra-individual, but also, — although the word "exist" then becomes inappropriate, — of the unmanifested state, comprising all the possibilities which are not susceptible of any manifestation, as well as the possibilities of manifestation themselves in principial mode; but the "Self " derives its being from itself alone, and neither has nor can have, in the perfect and indivisible unity of its nature, any principle which is external to it. [NA: It is our intention to set forth more completely in other works the metaphysical theory of the being’s multiple states; here we need only touch on those aspects of that theory that are indispensable to an understanding of the constitution of the human being.] Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta FUNDAMENTAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE SELF" AND THE "EGO"

The " Self," in relation to any being whatsoever, is in reality identical with Âtmâ, since it is essentially beyond all distinction and all particularization; and that is why, in Sanskrit, the same word âtman, in cases other than the nominative, replaces the reflexive pronoun "itself." The "Self " is not therefore really distinct from Âtmâ, except when one considers it particularly and " distinctively" in relation to a being, or, more accurately, in relation to a certain definite state of that being, such as the human state, and in so far as one considers it from this special and limited point of view alone. In this case, moreover, the " Self " does not really become distinct from Âtmâ in any way, since as we said above, it cannot be "other than itself," and obviously cannot be affected by the point of view from which we regard it, any more than by any other contingency. What should be noted is that, to the extent that we make this distinction, we are departing from the direct consideration of the "Self " in order to consider its reflection in human individuality or in some other state of the being, for, needless to say, when confronted with the Self, all states of manifestation are strictly equivalent and can be regarded in the same way but just now it is the human individuality which more particularly concerns us. The reflection in question determines what may be called the centre of this individuality; but if isolated from its principle, that is, from the "Self," it can only enjoy a purely illusory existence, for it is from that principle that it derives all its reality, and it effectually possesses this reality only through participation in the nature of the "Self," that is, in so far as it is identified therewith by universalization. Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta FUNDAMENTAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE SELF" AND THE "EGO"