34. The Advaitin holds that the Upanishads and all allied Smritis, Itihasas and Puranas teach this doctrine in one harmonious voice. Even the authors of other systems of philosophy are most of them not averse to this doctrine, though they do not avowedly uphold it in their writings. First as to the inherent nature of Atman: The Saivas and the Sankyas admit that Atman is self-existent and self-conscious. They cannot deny that Atman is essentially blissful, as may be seen from the following story related by Vyasa in his commentary on Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras:

There was a great yogin named Jaigishavya. By yoga he attained to all siddhis and could read back the history of the universe through many a cycle. In time he turned away his attention from the siddhis, and by Divine wisdom he realised the true nature of the Self and became absorbed in entire devotion to it. He was once asked by the teacher what happiness he had derived from the siddhis already-attained. The reply was that no happiness was derived from them. Then the teacher looked surprised that such extremely felicitous siddhis had given him no happiness. The yogin then explained that the felicity conferred by the siddhis was no doubt far superior to the worldly happiness, but that it was misery when compared with the Bliss of Kaivalya or Absolute Freedom.

The foregoing story shows that Atman is happiness itself: though the Sankhyas do not avowedly say so, simply because the word is in common parlance applied to worldly happiness. The Naiyayikas also must admit that Atman is bliss itself in so far as they hold that it is even more desirable to attain Atman than to attain the state of Indra and. Brahma. But they avow that in moksha Atman is quite as unconscious as a stone, merely because the inherent absolute consciousness of Atman, manifesting itself when freed from all connection with the body and the senses, is quite different from the ordinary objective consciousness, of limited scope and duration obtained by means of the senses. It is for this very reason that the Buddhist Nihilists look upon Atman as a nonentity in Nirvana. In his zeal to maintain the universal applicability of the doctrine that everything is momentary, the Vijnanavadin, the Buddhist Idealist, is led to conclude that Atman is not a persistent, eternal entity; that He is, on the other hand, a stream of innumerable ever-varying momentary ideas or states of consciousness. In his view, liberation consists in the destruction of illusory objects by right knowledge and the consequent flow in a continuous stream of pure ideas which are independent of one another. The continuity of Atman experienced in liberation is, he says, somewhat like the continuity of a flame.