Universe: Imperishability, the essence of Atman

All schools of Indian philosophy, with the sole exception of the materialist school Charvaka, believe that Atman (soul) is eternal and imperishable. Explaining the nature of Atman, Lord Krishna in the ‘Bhagvadgita’, 2.25, says, “The soul is spoken of as invisible, inconceivable, and unchangeable”, and that “the soul is neither born, nor does it ever die; nor having once existed, does it ever cease to be. The soul is without birth, eternal, immortal, and ageless. It is not destroyed when the body is destroyed (2.20).”

A similar conception of Atman is contained in ‘Kathopanishad’, 1.2.18, where it says, “The soul is not born, nor does it die; it did not spring from something, and nothing sprang from it. It is unborn, eternal, immortal, and ageless. It is not destroyed when the body is destroyed.” It is because the Atman, unlike the transformations undergone by the body, is devoid of the six types of transformations: “Existence in the womb, birth, growth, procreation, diminution, and death.”

The nature of Atman cannot be comprehended by the senses (indriyas) because as the ‘Kathopanishad’ argues, “Beyond the senses are the objects of the senses; subtler than the objects of the senses is the mind. Beyond the mind is the intellect; and subtler than the intellect is the soul.” Anything that is subtle cannot be grasped by the grotesque. So, to understand the nature of soul, the material intellect is not sufficient. We need the help of external sources like the scriptures and the Guru.

In its earliest form, the doctrine of the self is found in two major pre-Buddhist ‘Upanishads’: the ‘Brhadaranyaka’ and the ‘Chhandogya’. According to the former, “The soul is glorious, unborn, deathless, free from old age, immortal, and fearless” (4.4.25), and according to the latter, “That which is the subtle essence of this whole world is called self. That is the truth; that is the self.” It is the root of the world on whom all beings depend and in which they dwell. It is the self of all, and is without a parallel. There is no distinction between the individual self (Atman) and the universal self (Brahman). ‘Chhandogya Upanishad’ asserts ‘tat tvam asi’ (‘that thou art’).

It must be noted that the phrase ‘that thou art’ does not postulate the identification of two separate entities such as a symbol and that which is symbolised. It is not metaphorical. It is a categorical assertion of the fact that self alone is real. According to Shankaracharya, the aphorism ‘tat tvam asi’ dispels the false and transient knowledge of the embodied self. The import of this assertion is that in the embodied self, it is the body which is subject to change, not the self.

In his commentary on the ‘Brhadaranyaka Upanishad’, Shankaracharya sums up the meaning of Atman thus: “That great birthless self is undecaying, immortal, deathless and fearless Brahman. Fearless is Brahman. He who knows thus becomes the fearless Brahman.” This passage means: Atman has no beginning, no change and no end. It is birthless, changeless and deathless; it is immortal and imperishable. It is free from three kinds of changes — birth, old age and death, and the effects of desire (kama), action (karma), delusion (moha) and anger (krodha), which are the causes of death. Since the Atman is free from death and consequent cessation, it is fearless.

— The writer is former professor of philosophy at Delhi University