Sacred Text · The Upanishads
The Self is not born and dies not
Katha Upanishad I.2.18-19 · SBE vol. XV · F. Max Müller
Translation: F. Max Müller, The Upanishads, Sacred Books of the East, Part I (vol. I, 1879) and Part II (vol. XV, 1884), public domain (Müller died 1900), via the Internet Archive (items upanishads00mlgoog and upanishads02mlgoog). Reproduced in context; Müller’s round-bracket insertions are his own clarifying additions, and optical-scanning artefacts were corrected against his printed wording. The key passages Chandogya VI.8-16 (Tat tvam asi, ‘that art thou’), the Isha opening, Brihadaranyaka I.4.10 (Aham Brahmasmi, ‘I am Brahman’) and IV.5.15 (neti neti), and Katha I.2.18-20 on the immortal Self were validated against the source before publishing. References follow the standard Upanishad numbering.
How this connects to Jesus
The knowing Self is not born and does not die; though the body is slain, the Self is not slain. These are almost the words the Bhagavad Gita would later use, and they carry the deep human hope that death is not the end. The Gospel shares that hope and locates it in a Person, not only in an undying essence we already possess: Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live (John 11:25). Compare the deathless Self of the Katha with the risen Christ, who conquered death and promises to raise us too.
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