Meaning Of Atman – Story From Mahabharata

See, in each one of you, there is something which gives you confidence. Even though you die again and again, there is something that gives you a deep confidence that you will not die in the real sense. That is what the Atman or the Self is.

There is a beautiful story in the great Hindu epic Mahabharata. It is called Yakshaprashna:

There was a demigod named Yaksha who had a quiz program with Yudhishtira – one of the five Pandava princes, known for treading the path of dharma, or righteousness.

The demigod was asking all his questions and one of the questions was, 'What is the most surprising thing on planet earth?'

Yudhishtira says, 'Every moment, every day, we see so many people going to a mass abode – the abode of death. Even then, every soul, every person who lives here, thinks that he is not going to die! He thinks that he is going to be here forever; that only others are going to die. That is the most surprising thing on planet earth!'

There is something which gives you confidence; there is some energy that constantly gives you the idea that you are going to be here forever. That is what we call Atman! If we understand this truth and catch on to the energy, or Self, behind this thinking, we will celebrate death as a mere passage in the existence of the Self. Instead, if we understand this truth in the context of the physical body, we will end up believing that death can never take our body away from us, and we suffer when it actually happens.