You are not the Self.

You are not the Self. You are bound by birth,life,death and the world whereas the the self is birth-less,deathless and world less because it is formless.   Till you hold ‘you’ as self,  you will never be able to acquire Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

 You are the waking entity (ego).  You are the false self (ego) within the false experience (waking). You are part of the illusion. Self is nothing to do with you and your world. The inner most Self is not limited to waking entity and waking world, because it is formless and it  pervades all the three states.  You disappear along with your world,  when the  waking experience  disappears.  The one which witnesses the coming and going of the three states is not you but the formless soul or consciousness. 

The formless soul or consciousness is the substance and witness of the three states. The formless substance and witness of the three states are one in essence. Without the formless soul or consciousness, the three states are non-existent.  Therefore, the formless soul or consciousness is the innermost self.  On the standpoint of the formless soul, the innermost self, the three states cease to exist as reality. Thus you are part of the illusion. Thus identifying the self as ‘I AM THIS OR ‘I AM THAT’, without becoming mentally aware of the existence of the formless witness of the three states,  it is impossible to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.      

That is why Buddha said:- 

Do not believe a spiritual teaching just because:-

1. It is repeatedly recited,
2. It is written in a scripture,
3. It was handed from guru to disciple,
4. everyone around you believes it,
5. It has supernatural qualities,
6. It fits my beliefs anyway,
7. It sounds rational to me,
8. It is taught by a respectable person,
9. It was said to be the truth by the teacher,
10. One must defend it or fight for it.

However, only when it agrees with your experience and reason, and when it is conducive to the good and gain of oneself and all others, then one should accept the teachings, and live up to them."

The truth does not require any tag of some guru or teaching, the serious seekers who are tired of all the theories, paths and practices and find them inadequate and useless, will turn towards the perennial springs of spiritual truth, to quench their spiritual thirst. For those who are advanced in the spiritual pursuit, will find the entire spiritual tags and branded paths and practices are inadequate and useless, in pursuit of truth.

Deeper self-search revels the fact that, the Atman ,body and world are one in essence therefore no second thing exists other than Atman, which is in the form of consciousness.  Thus realizing all the three states as consciousness leads to self-awareness.

That is why Sri, Sankara indicated in (VC): - 65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.

Seeker of truth has to direct realization of the true self, through deeper self-search and avoid losing precious time and effort loosing himself in philosophical studies.