Bhagavad Geeta asserts the Immortality of the Soul  

Bhagavad Geeta asserts the Immortality of the Soul

The great truth to which the Hindu hold on and which they can never forget or disbelieve is the immortality of the Soul and the continuance of life after death. The Gita, at the very outset, declares that the Atman cannot be destroyed. “Know That to be indestructible by which all this is pervaded. None can cause the destruction of That, the imperishable. He is not born, nor does He ever die; after having been, He again ceases not to be; unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient, He is not killed when the body is killed” (II. 17, 20). Nothing can be more glorious than the recognition of this supreme fact. This saving knowledge is the very life-breath of Hinduism, the solace of mankind and the realisation of which the Absolute in the form of Sri Krishna speaks to Arjuna who is the representative of humanity itself. The culture of India is permeated throughout and thoroughly influenced by the indubitable belief in the immortality and divinity of the Spirit in man.

To the Hindus, the world of empirical experience is not the reality, but the Atman or Brahman is the Reality. They have no faith in the unstable universe, but they have full faith in the Eternal Being. Brahman is their aim and the world is only a passage or a step, a mere means and not the end or finality of experience. The Gita is the message of the Life Transcendent which embraces within itself the entire universe which is seen in it in an altogether new light. Every individual can have this experience and even the wicked has hope. “Even a man of bad conduct, when he worships Me with singular devotion, should be regarded as righteous, for he has rightly resolved” (IX. 30). “Even the weak, taking refuge in Me, go to the Supreme Abode” (IX. 32). There is no such thing as ‘original sin’ or innate evil in man, for the Soul of man is immortal and “even as blazing fire reduces fuel to ashes, so does the fire of knowledge reduce all actions to ashes” (IV. 37). Here knowledge stands for the realisation of the imperishable Self. As the ultimate destiny of man is identity with God, he passes from one life to another, from one body to another, according to his desires and actions, until he exhausts all experiences resulting therefrom, and attains identity with God.

Reincarnation cannot stop until Self-realisation is attained, for the immortal Self asserts itself every moment and the individual cannot find rest anywhere except in its realisation, which, again, is not possible unless all Karmas are burnt up or exhausted. The Hindu theory of rebirth and immortality is unparalleled in the religious history of the world, and it is the only scientific and satisfactory explanation of the meaning of life. Without the fundamental acceptance of the immortal Self, no experience can be explained or understood and the theory of Karma is only a corollary to this basic truth which is the central pivot and theme of philosophy and religion.

Source: All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

(Sri Swami Sivanandaji is a world-renowned Saint of the Advaita Vedanta and Yoga Darshanas. A medical doctor (Surgeon) by profession, he founded the Divine Life Society which today has hundreds of centres worldwide. Swamiji has written over 200 books and is the Deeksha Guru of World Famous Swami Chinmayanandaji).