Upanishads

Atma Upanishad

Atharvaveda
group of Upanishads – pure Vedanta

1. Om! Then Angiras said: "Purusha [is] of three kinds, namely: the external Atman, the internal Atman and the supreme Atman. [He who] has a sheath, skin, nails [on the hands], flesh, hair, fingers, thumbs, spine, nails [on the feet], ankles, womb, navel, genital organ, hips, thighs, cheeks, eyebrows, forehead, arms, sides, head, arteries, eyes, ears; [who] is born and dies – he is called the external Atman.

2. Now about the inner Atman. [Who], thanks to [the comprehension of] earth, water, fire, air, space, desire, hatred, happiness, unhappiness, passion, blindness, doubt and the rest, is endowed with the sign of memory; [who], thanks to high, low, short, long, extended, stumbling, roaring, explosive and mixed echoes, as well as] dancing, singing, playing instruments, loss of consciousness, yawning and the like, is the listener, smeller, taster, thinker, comprehender, actor; [who] discerns the Atman, purusha; [who studies] the Puranas, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Dharmashastras; who makes distinctions in the actions of hearing, smell, gravity – he is called the inner Atman.

3. Now about the Supreme Atman: He is [that] which should be revered as the sacred syllable [Om]; [which is revealed] to one who thinks about the Supreme Atman in meditation and yoga – restraint of breath, cessation of the activity of the senses and complete merging; [like] a fig seed, a grain of millet, a hundred-thousandth part of a split tip of a hair; [which] is unattainable, incomprehensible, does not take birth, does not die, does not dry up, does not burn, does not tremble, does not disintegrate, does not split, devoid of properties, the witness [of everything], pure, indivisible by nature, the only one, subtle, devoid of parts, unstained, without conceit, devoid of sound, touch, taste, sight, smell, devoid of doubt, devoid of expectation, all-pervading. He, the inconceivable and indescribable, purifies the impure and the polluted, [he] is inactive, has no connection with past existences, has no connection with past existences. This purusha is called the supreme Atman."