It is not born, nor does it die; it has not been created, nor will it be created. Without origin, eternal, permanent, ancient — it is not killed when the body is killed.

This is one of the most celebrated verses in all Upaniṣadic literature, repeated almost identically in the Bhagavad Gītā (2.20). The sequence of negations — na jāyate, na mriyate — points to the ineffable: the Ātman does not belong to the order of becoming. It is not subject to causality (kṛta/akṛta), has no beginning (aja), and is not subject to time (nitya, śāśvata). The final phrase is the death blow against the fear of death: what you truly are does not perish when the body perishes. It is the same teaching that Kṛṣṇa transmits to Arjuna on the battlefield.