Atman (आत्मन्)

Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for, yet speakest words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.

Nor at any time verily was I not, nor thou, nor these princes of men, nor verily shall we ever cease to be, hereafter.

As the dweller in the body experienceth in the body childhood, youth, old age, so passeth he on to another body; the steadfast one grieveth not thereat.

The contacts of matter, O son of Kuntî, giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain, they come and go, impermanent; endure them bravely, O Bhârata.

The man whom these torment not, O chief of men, balanced in pain and pleasure, steadfast, he is fitted for immortality.

The unreal hath no being; the real never ceaseth to be; the truth about both hath been perceived by the seers of the essence of things.

Know That to be indestructible by whom all this is pervaded. Nor can any work the destruction of that imperishable One.

These bodies of the embodied One, who is eternal, indestructible and immeasurable, are known as finite. Therefore fight, O Bhârata.

He who regardeth this as a slayer, and he who thinketh he is slain, both of them are ignorant. He slayeth not, nor is he slain.

He is not born, nor doth he die; nor having been, ceaseth he any more to be; unborn, perpetual, eternal and ancient, he is not slain when the body is slaughtered.

Who knoweth him indestructible, perpetual, unborn, undiminishing, how can that man slay, O Pârtha, or cause to be slain?

As a man, casting off worn-out garments, taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, casting off worn-out bodies, entereth into others that are new.

Weapons cleave him not, nor fire burneth him, nor waters wet him, nor wind drieth him away.

Uncleavable he, incombustible he, and indeed neither to be wetted nor dried away; perpetual, all-pervasive, stable, immovable, ancient.

Unmanifest, unthinkable, immutable, he is called; therefore knowing him as such, thou shouldst not grieve.

Or if thou thinkest of him as being constantly born and constantly dying, even then, O mighty-armed, thou shouldst not grieve.

For certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead; therefore over the inevitable thou shouldst not grieve.

Beings are unmanifest in their origin, manifest in their midmost state, O Bhârata, unmanifest likewise are they in dissolution. What room then for lamentation?

As marvellous one regardeth him; as marvellous another speaketh thereof; as marvellous another heareth thereof; yet having heard none indeed understandeth.

This dweller in the body of everyone is ever invulnerable, O Bhârata; therefore thou shouldst not grieve for any creature.

This is the Eternal state, O son of Prithâ. Having attained thereto, none is bewildered. Who, even at the death-hour, is established therein, he goeth to the Nirvâna of the Eternal.

But the man who rejoiceth in the Self, with the Self is satisfied, and is content in the Self, for him verily there is nothing to do;

For him there is no interest in things done, in this world, nor any in things not done, nor doth any object of his depend on any being.

It is said that the senses are great; greater than the senses is the mind: greater than the mind is the Reason; but what is greater than the Reason, is He.

Thus understanding Him as greater than the Reason, restraining the self by the Self, slay thou, O mighty-armed, the enemy in the form of desire, difficult to overcome.

Many births have been left behind by Me and by thee, O Arjuna. I know them all, but thou knowest not thine, O Parantapa.

Though unborn, the imperishable Self, and also the Lord of all beings, brooding over nature which is Mine own, yet I am born through My own Power.

And having known this, thou shalt not again fall into this confusion, O Pândava; for by this thou wilt see all beings without exception in the Self, and thus in Me.

He who hath renounced actions by yoga, who hath cloven asunder doubt by wisdom, who is ruled by the Self, actions do not bind him, O Dhananjaya.

He who is harmonised by yoga, the self purified, Self-ruled, the senses subdued, whose Self is the Self of all beings, although acting he is not affected.

"I do not anything," should think the harmonised one, who knoweth the essence of things; seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing.

Speaking, giving, grasping, opening and closing the eyes, he holdeth: "The senses move among the objects of the senses."

Mentally renouncing all actions, the sovereign dweller in the body resteth serenely in the nine-gated city, neither acting nor causing to act.

The Lord of the world produceth not the idea of agency, nor actions, nor the union together of action and its fruit; nature, however, manifesteth.

The Lord accepteth neither the evil-doing nor yet the well-doing of any. Wisdom is enveloped by unwisdom; therewith mortals are deluded.

He, whose self is unattached to external contacts and findeth joy in the Self, having the self harmonised with the Eternal by yoga, enjoys imperishable bliss.

Let him raise the self by the Self and not let the self become depressed; for verily is the Self the friend of the self, and also the Self the self's enemy;

The Self is the friend of the self of him in whom the self by the Self is vanquished; but to the unsubdued self the Self verily becometh hostile as an enemy.

The higher Self of him who is Self-controlled and peaceful is uniform in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, as well as in honour and dishonour.

When his subdued thought is fixed on the Self, free from longing after all desirable things, then it is said, "he is harmonised."

That in which the mind finds rest, quieted by the practice of yoga: that in which he, seeing the Self by the Self, in the Self is satisfied;

Little by little let him gain tranquillity, by means of Reason controlled by steadiness; having made the mind abide in the Self, let him not think of anything.

As often as the wavering and unsteady mind goeth forth, so often reining it in, let him bring it under the control of the Self.

The Yogi who thus, ever harmonising the self, hath put away sin, he easily enjoyeth the infinite bliss of contact with the Eternal.

The self, harmonised by yoga, seeth the Self abiding in all beings, all beings in the Self; everywhere he seeth the same.

He who, through the likeness of the Self, O Arjuna, seeth equality in everything, whether pleasant or painful, he is considered a perfect Yogi.

Yoga is hard to attain, methinks, by a self that is uncontrolled; but by the Self-controlled it is attainable by properly directed energy.

And among all Yogis, he who, full of faith, with the inner Self abiding in Me, adoreth Me, he is considered by Me to be the most completely harmonised.

Noble are all these, but I hold the wise as verily Myself; he, Self united, is fixed on Me, the highest Path.

Out of pure compassion for them, dwelling within their Self, I destroy the ignorance-born darkness by the shining lamp of wisdom.

Thyself indeed knowest Thyself by Thyself, O Purushottama; Source of beings, Lord of beings, Shining One of Shining Ones, Ruler of the world!

I, O Gudakesha, am the Self, seated in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings.

Of creations the beginning and the ending, and also the middle am I, O Arjuna. Of sciences the science concerning the Self; the speech of orators I.

I will declare that which ought to be known, that which being known immortality is enjoyed—the beginningless supreme Eternal, called neither being nor non-being.

Supervisor and permitter, supporter, enjoyer, the great Lord, and also the supreme Self; thus is styled in this body the supreme Spirit.

Seated equally in all beings, the supreme Lord, unperishing within the perishing—he who thus seeth, he seeth.

Seeing indeed everywhere the same Lord equally dwelling, he doth not destroy the Self, and thus treads the highest Path.

He who seeth that Matter verily performeth all actions, and that the Self is actionless, he seeth.

Being beginningless and without qualities, the imperishable supreme Self, though seated in the body, O Kaunteya, worketh not nor is affected.

As the omnipresent ether is not affected, by reason of its subtlety, so seated everywhere in the body the Self is not affected.

Harmony, Motion, Inertia, such are the qualities, Matter-born; they bind fast in the body, O great-armed one, the indestructible dweller in the body.

When the dweller in the body hath crossed over these three qualities, whence all bodies have been produced, liberated from birth, death, old age and sorrow, he drinketh the nectar of immortality.

A portion of Mine own Self, transformed in the world of life into an immortal Spirit, draweth round itself the senses of which the mind is the sixth, veiled in matter.

When the Lord acquireth a body and when He abandoneth it, He seizeth these and goeth with them, as the wind takes fragrances from their retreats.

The deluded do not perceive (Him) when He departeth or stayeth or enjoyeth, swayed by the qualities; the wisdom-eyed perceive.

Yogîs also, struggling, perceive Him, established in the Self; but though struggling, the unintelligent perceive Him not, their selves untrained.

And I am seated in the hearts of all, and from Me memory and wisdom and their absence. And that which is to be known in all the Vedas am I; and I indeed the Veda-knower and the author of the Vedanta.

The highest Energy is verily Another, declared as the Supreme Self, He who, pervading all, sustaineth the three worlds, the indestructible Lord.

The faith of each is shaped to his own nature, O Bhârata. The man consists of his faith; that which his faith is, he is even that.

That being so, he verily who—owing to untrained Reason—looketh on his Self, which is isolated, as the actor, he of perverted intelligence, seeth not.