Consciousness is self-effulgent. Here effulgence is used as a metaphor for “revealing.” In other words, Consciousness is self-revealing. Since human beings need the aid of light to see objects, the Sages us the words “light” or “bright” or “effulgence” as metaphors for Consciousness for our understanding only. Since a lamp does not need another lamp to reveal its presence, Consciousness does not need another Consciousness to reveal its presence, and that is why they say Consciousness is self-effulgent because it is self-revealing. Therefore, Consciousness alone counts as self-shinning, not so any other object, not even the Sun. Consciousness per se reveals objects and not the light of the sun or a lamp because sunlight or a lamp (objects) are themselves objects within Consciousness, so are time and space and the whole caboodle. There is no consciousness in a corpse because the reflective and dynamic element (mind) of the individual has departed, and so it becomes unreflective like dead wood and an merely an object of another human’ cognition.
DIPPACK MISTRI 