What Is Ātman?

Question:

“What is Ātman (Self), Anātman (non-self) and Paramātman (Supreme Self)?”

Answer:

“Ātman is Jīvātman (the individual Self) and the rest are plain. The Self is ever-present (Nityasiddha). Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light, etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness (Na Tejo, Na Tamah). It is only as it is. It cannot be defined. The best definition is ‘I am that I AM.’ The Śrutis speak of the Self as being the size of one’s thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. They have no foundation in fact. It is only Being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is Knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply Being.”

~ Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

• Maharshi, Sri Ramana (2006). Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Tiruvannamalai: Sriramanasasram