The Immortal Self

He who shall say, “Lo! I have slain a man!” He who shall think, “Lo! I am slain!”

those both Know naught! Life cannot slay. Life is not slain! Never the spirit was born;

the spirit shall cease to be never;

Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!

Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever;

Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!

Who knoweth it exhaustless, self-sustained, Immortal, indestructible,--shall such Say, “I

have killed a man, or caused to kill?”

Nay, but as when one layeth

His worn-out robes away,

And taking new ones, sayeth,

“These will I wear to-day!”

So putteth by the spirit

Lightly its garb of flesh,

And passeth to inherit

A residence afresh.

I say to thee weapons reach not the Life;

Flame burns it not, waters cannot o’erwhelm,

Nor dry winds wither it. Impenetrable,

Unentered, unassailed, unharmed, untouched,

Immortal, all-arriving, stable, sure,

Invisible, ineffable, by word

And thought uncompassed, ever all itself,

Thus is the Soul declared! How wilt thou, then,--

Knowing it so,--grieve when thou shouldst not grieve? How, if thou hearest that the man

new-dead Is, like the man new-born, still living man—

One same, existent Spirit—wilt thou weep?

Article Source : UNODC