Acharya Prashant addresses a question about the relationship between immortality, knowing the Self (Atma), and setting aside other thoughts. He begins by refining the concept of the Self as a 'container'. He suggests that 'containment' is not the right word as it implies a boundary with something distinct inside. A better concept, he explains, is 'the sky' (Akash). Everything happens within the sky, but the sky is not merely a boundary; it is also the very substance that enables everything to happen. Within a container, there is stuff distinct from the container, but within the sky, there is nothing but the sky itself. Even the 'stuff' that appears within the sky is composed of 'skyness' in every atom of its existence. Using a scientific analogy, he points out that an atom is over 99% empty space, or sky. Even the subatomic particles that seem to constitute the remaining 1% are, upon deeper inquiry, also just sky. Material, as we perceive it, does not truly exist; there are only fields within the sky. Therefore, all that truly exists is the sky and its function, which he terms 'skyness'. The Upanishadic teaching is to know this fundamental reality and to keep all other 'junk'âthoughts of 'this and that', birth and death, doership and goalsâaside. When one realizes there is only the sky and 'skyness', and no separate 'you' or 'me', one becomes immortal. Acharya Prashant then explores the paradox of immortality. The conventional understanding of 'life' is inextricably linked to 'death'; one cannot be defined without the other. Therefore, when death disappears in immortality, the life that we know also disappears. Immortality is not freedom from death but freedom from the mortal self, the ego-self. The life we typically live is described as 'death in action,' a life powered and controlled by the fear of death. To be free from death, one must be free from the life that is centered on the ego and its fear of annihilation. Immortality is possible only when the personal self is discarded.
