The Self (Ātman)
Not the body, not the thoughts — the silent awareness in which both appear.
Ātman is the deepest 'I' — not the body, not the passing thoughts and feelings, but the awareness in which all of those appear. Much of Hindu thought is a disciplined inquiry into this self: what it is, whether it is one or many, and how it relates to ultimate reality. Recognizing the self truly is, for several schools, the very heart of liberation.
How it traveled
- Bṛhadāraṇyaka UpaniṣadMithilā (kingdom of Videha) · -700explains
- Chāndogya UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -700explains
- Aitareya UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -700explains
- Kaṭha UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -500explains
- Māṇḍūkya UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -300explains
- Bhagavad-gītāKuru-Pañcāla region · -150explains
- UpadeśasāhasrīKālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710explains
- Aṣṭāvakra-gītāKāśī (Varanasi) · 1450explains
Key passages(20)
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
I am the Self, O Gudâkesha, existent in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings.
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This in never born, nor does It die. It is not that not having been It again comes into being. (Or according to another view: It is not that having been It again ceases to be). This is unborn, eternal
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
'He who dwells in the breath (prana), and within the breath, whom the breath does not know, whose body the breath is, and who pulls (rules) the breath within, he is thy Self, the puller (ruler) within
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'This (body) indeed withers and dies when the living Self has left it; the living Self dies not. That which is that subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self,
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'Now that which is that subtile essence (the root of all), in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.' 'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said
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The Self, smaller than small, greater than great, is hidden in the heart of that creature. A man who is free from desires and free from grief, sees the majesty of the Self by the grace of the Creator.
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
The person (purusha), not larger than a thumb, dwelling within, always dwelling in the heart of man, is perceived by the heart, the thought , the mind; they who know it become immortal.
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When to a man who understands, the Self has become all things, what sorrow, what trouble can there be to him who once beheld that unity?
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The wise who knows the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as unchanging among changing things, as great and omnipresent, does never grieve.
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