🧠 Mind is not atman
In Hindu thought the mind is part of prakriti, like the body. So Hindus can agree that thoughts and moods depend on the brain, and that injury can change them. The atman is the witness behind the mind, and it is not harmed.
Hindu Beliefs about the Universe and Human Beings » Body, Atman and the Three Gunas
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 1, 1.2 (Hinduism)
- What Hindus believe about the body and why it is seen as temporary
- What the atman is, and different Hindu views of how it relates to Brahman
- The three gunas and how they shape personality and behaviour
- Why Hindus believe in a soul, and how they respond to physicalism
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Unlock This CourseThe body: a temporary home
The lesson Do Humans Have a Soul? Human Nature and Physicalism set out the general views. Hinduism gives a clear answer of its own: a human being is an eternal atman living in a temporary body.
Hindus believe the body is made of matter, like everything else in the physical world. It is traditionally said to be formed from five elements: earth, water, fire, air and space. The body is always changing. It is born, grows, ages and dies. The Bhagavad Gita (chapter 2) says the self within passes through childhood, youth and old age in one body, yet stays the same.
The Gita compares the body to clothes. A person takes off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, and in the same way the atman leaves a worn-out body. What happens next is taught in the lesson Samsara, Karma and Reincarnation in Hinduism.
This does not mean the body is worthless. It is the atman's home and its tool. Hindus need a healthy body to carry out their duties, to worship and to work towards moksha. So many Hindus look after the body with care, for example through simple food and yoga.
Key terms:
- Prakriti: matter or nature. Everything physical, including the body.
- Gunas: the three qualities that make up all matter: sattva, rajas and tamas.
- Advaita: 'not two'. The view that the atman and Brahman are one and the same.
- Dvaita: 'two'. The view that the atman and Brahman are always separate.
The atman: the true self
Remember, the atman is the eternal self within every living thing. Hindus believe it is who a person really is. The body is something you have. The atman is what you are.
The Gita (chapter 2) teaches that the atman is never born and never dies. It is not killed when the body is killed. Weapons cannot cut it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it and wind cannot dry it. It does not change. Hindus add that the atman is not male or female, young or old. Those are features of the body.
The chariot
The Katha Upanishad pictures a person as a chariot. The body is the chariot. The senses are the horses, the mind is the reins and the intellect (the power to judge wisely) is the driver. The atman is the passenger who owns the chariot. The chariot serves the passenger, not the other way round.
How does the atman relate to Brahman?
All Hindus link the atman closely with Brahman, but they do not all explain the link in the same way.
💧 One and the same
The Advaita tradition teaches that the atman is Brahman. There is only one reality. The feeling of being a separate self fades when a person gains true knowledge, like a drop of water joining the ocean.
🔥 A part of Brahman
Other Hindus say each atman is a real part of Brahman but not the whole of it, like a spark from a fire. In the Gita (chapter 15), Krishna calls living beings eternal parts of himself.
🙏 Always separate
The Dvaita tradition teaches that the atman and Brahman are different for ever. Each atman depends on God, and its goal is to love and serve God, not to become God.
A famous story comes from the Chandogya Upanishad. A father asks his son, Shvetaketu, to put salt in water and leave it overnight. In the morning the salt can no longer be seen, yet every sip tastes of it. In the same way, the father says, the unseen reality is in everything: 'tat tvam asi', which means 'you are that'. Advaita Hindus read this as saying the atman is Brahman. Dvaita Hindus read it as saying the atman belongs to Brahman and depends on Brahman. You will study two of the teachers behind these views in the lesson Shankara and Ramanuja.
The three gunas
Guna means 'quality' or 'strand'. Hindus believe that all prakriti is woven from three gunas, like a rope made of three strands. The Gita (chapter 14) teaches that the gunas tie the atman to the body. Everything physical holds all three, but in different amounts.
💡 Sattva
Goodness and clarity. A person led by sattva is calm, truthful, kind and wise.
🏃 Rajas
Passion and activity. A person led by rajas is full of energy and ambition, but also restless and always wanting more.
😴 Tamas
Darkness and inertia (being slow to move or change). A person led by tamas is lazy, careless and confused.
The mix of gunas shapes a person's personality and behaviour, and the mix can change. The Gita (chapter 17) sorts everyday things by guna. Fresh, wholesome food is sattvic. Very hot, sour or salty food is rajasic. Stale food is tamasic.
So many Hindus try to build up sattva through fresh vegetarian food, honest work, worship and meditation. Rajas is not simply bad, because it supplies the energy to act. But the atman itself has no gunas. They belong to the body and mind. The Gita says the final aim is to rise above all three.
Why Hindus believe in a soul
- Scripture: the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita teach it plainly, and Hindus trust these texts.
- The unchanging witness: the body and even thoughts keep changing, yet something is aware of all the changes. Hindus say this silent witness is the atman.
- Experience: Hindu teachers say the atman can be known directly through meditation and yoga, not just believed in.
- It makes sense of life: if every being has an atman, every life has worth.
Hindu responses to physicalism
Physicalism says nothing exists except the physical world. This idea is not new to Hindus. In ancient India a school of thinkers called the Charvakas taught that only matter is real, that consciousness comes from the body and that death is the end. Hindu teachers argued against them.
🔬 The limits of science
Science studies matter. Hindus say the atman is not matter, so no instrument could detect it. Hindus add that matter alone cannot explain awareness.
Common mistakes
Do not write that the atman is the mind or the personality. Hindus say these belong to the body and the gunas. Do not say all Hindus believe the atman and Brahman are identical: that is the Advaita view only. And do not call rajas 'evil'. It is energy that can be used well or badly.
Exam-style question
Paper 1 style. (a) and (b) test AO1; (c) and (d) test AO1 and AO2.
(a) Identify three reasons why some people believe that human beings have a soul. [3 marks]
(b) Choose one religion. Outline two beliefs about the human body in this religion. [4 marks]
(c) Choose one religion. Explain why followers of this religion believe that a human being is more than a physical body. [6 marks]
(d) 'The body is not important because it does not last.' Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]
Model answer
(a) 1. Their holy books teach it (1). 2. They feel there is a self that stays the same while the body changes (1). 3. Human consciousness seems more than physical (1).
(b) Hinduism. Hindus believe the body is temporary (1), because it is born, ages and dies while the atman within it stays the same (1). Hindus believe the body is made of prakriti, or matter (1), which means it is shaped by the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas (1).
(c) Hinduism. Hindus believe every person has an atman, an eternal self. The Bhagavad Gita teaches that the atman is never born and never dies, and that it is not killed when the body is killed. Hindus trust this scripture, so they see the body as only the outer layer of a person.
Hindus also point to experience. The body and thoughts change all the time, yet something stays aware of the changes. Hindus say this witness is the atman, and that it can be known through meditation.
Finally, Hindus believe the atman is linked to Brahman. Advaita Hindus say the atman is Brahman, as in the teaching 'tat tvam asi'. This means the deepest part of a person is not physical at all, which is why Hindus reject physicalism.
(d) Plan. For: Hindus believe the body is temporary, like clothes that wear out, while the atman is eternal; the body is made of the gunas, which tie the atman down; the final aim is moksha, not bodily comfort.
Against: Hindus believe the body is the atman's tool, needed to do one's duty and work towards moksha, so it must be cared for with sattvic food and yoga; ahimsa forbids harming the bodies of living things; physicalists and humanists say the body is all we are, so nothing could matter more.
Possible conclusion: judge each point as you go, then pick a side. For example: I disagree. For Hindus the body matters less than the atman, but 'less important' is not 'not important', because the atman needs the body to make progress.
Exam tip
In part (b) the question asks about the body, so keep each point on the body. A sentence that only describes the atman or Brahman earns nothing here, even if it is correct.