The Ashtavakra Gita presents the self (Ātman) as pure consciousness, the silent witness that underlies all experience yet is never touched by it. This self is unchanging and eternal, beyond birth and death, and not an object that can be grasped by the mind or senses. It is formless and without attributes, not defined by any quality, condition, or limitation. As pure awareness, it is self-luminous, knowing itself by itself and requiring no other light or means of knowledge. In this vision, the self is not something that comes and goes, but that which remains constant while all phenomena arise and subside.

This text also emphasizes that the self is utterly distinct from what is ordinarily taken to be “me.” It is not the body, not the mind, not the intellect, and not the ego that claims doership and experiences results. It is not the doer of actions and not truly the experiencer of pleasure or pain, purity or impurity. Bondage and liberation, merit and demerit, belong only to the realm of mind and ignorance, never to the self itself. The self is not located in space or time, and thus cannot be confined, improved, or diminished by any worldly or psychological condition.

At the same time, the self is described as naturally free, ever-liberated, and intrinsically peaceful and blissful. Its very nature is stillness, peace, and an inner joy that does not depend on external circumstances or mental states. It stands as the witnessing consciousness that observes all thoughts, emotions, and experiences without being affected or modified by them. Because it is beyond all dualities—pleasure and pain, good and bad, bondage and liberation—it cannot truly be bound, nor does it need to be set free. Spiritual practice, from this standpoint, is not a process of becoming something new but of recognizing what has always been the case.

Finally, the Ashtavakra Gita identifies this self with Brahman, the ultimate, non-dual reality. There is no real separation between individual self and universal consciousness; the apparent distinction is only a play of ignorance. The self is one and indivisible, the substratum upon which the entire universe appears, much as waves appear on the surface of the ocean without ever being other than water. To “realize” the self, therefore, is simply to recognize this ever-present, pure awareness as one’s own true nature, which has never been bound, never been other than the absolute.