?tman
Ātman (Skt.). For Hindus and Sikhs, the real or true Self, which underlies and is present in human appearance. In the Vedas, that sense had not developed. In the Ṛg Veda it means breath, or the whole body, as opposed to parts of it. It may even simply be a reflexive pronoun (cf. nafs in Arabic). It was only in the period of the Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads that attempts were made to define and describe the nature of this ‘self’ more precisely. Brihādaranyaka Upaniṣad 1. 3. 22 states that the vital force, ātman (now much more than breath) is present and operative in every form of life, not just in humans. Ātman is therefore necessarily identical with Brahman.
In Buddhism, this idea of ātman was profoundly contradicted: see ANĀTMAN (= anatta). For Sikhs, the immortal ātman is the means of relation to God—indeed, the union (for those who attain it) is so close that it comes close at times to identity: ‘God abides in the ātman, and the ātman abides in God’ (Ādi Granth 1153).
In Buddhism, this idea of ātman was profoundly contradicted: see ANĀTMAN (= anatta). For Sikhs, the immortal ātman is the means of relation to God—indeed, the union (for those who attain it) is so close that it comes close at times to identity: ‘God abides in the ātman, and the ātman abides in God’ (Ādi Granth 1153).
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