Self in Indian philosophy: Questions, answers, issues

What is the real nature of the self? How and why does this differ from what we ordinarily perceive, think, and treat the self to be? What role does the self, and/ or knowledge about the nature of the self, play both before death and after death in relation to the enlightenment, salvation, annihilation, or more generally, to the purpose, or goal (telos) of oneself or of life? One can try to answer each of these questions separately, but no matter which of the questions one begins with, the remaining will soon be a relevant ingredient in any developed response. As to be expected, in Indian philosophy, as in Western philosophy, these questions are all intimately and inseparably connected to each other and with philosophical accounts about the nature of reality.