The Atma

The BhagavadGita
A walkthrough for Westerners
Jack Hawley copyrite 2001

Real, as used in spirituality, means that which is eternal, never changing, indestructible. This is the very definition of "reality'. That which is Real never ceases to be . Anything that is impermanent, even if it last a very long time and seems durable, eventually changes and thus does not have true Reality. The wise ones understand the difference between the Real and the not-Real"

"Get to know this Reality. It pervades the entire cosmos and is unchanging and indestructible. No power can affect it. No one can change the changeless.

"This Atma, Arjuna, is like space or sky. Clouds appear in the sky but thier presence does not cause the sky to grow apart to make room for them. In the same manner, the Atma (the True Self Within) remains ever itself. Things of the material universe come and go, appear and disappear, but the Atma never changes.

"Only the body is mortal. Only the body will come to an end. But the Atma, which is the True Self Within, is immortal, and will never come to an end. So fight, O Warrior !

"You talk about killing or being killed; know that the body may be killed but the indwelling Realty (the Atma) can never be. To say that one person slays and the other is slain may be correct from a physical worldly standpoint, but is not the Reality of the matter.

"The Atma, this Real us, was never born, nor will it ever die. In fact this eternal Reality within is never destroyed; it never undergoes any changes. When your ego takes over and you erroneously identify your self with the body, you feel that physical death is death to the self, and that is frightening. But the Self (Atma) can never be 'killed'. When the body is slain the Atma remains unaffected."