आत्मा

"The soul is never born nor dies at any time. It has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. It is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, and primeval."

The ground teaching of the Gita — begin here, and everything else follows.

"The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind."

A teaching through negation: by saying what the self is NOT, Krishna points to what cannot be destroyed.

"Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe it as amazing, and some hear of it as amazing, while others, even after hearing about it, cannot understand it at all."

The self is the closest thing there is — and yet somehow the hardest to see directly.

"The individual soul in this body is the observer, permitter, supporter, experiencer, and the great Lord — the Supreme Self."

The individual self and the universal Self are not ultimately two — here they converge.

"The living beings in this conditioned world are my eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, including the mind."

The fragment that seeks reunion with the whole — this is the entire spiritual journey in one verse.

"The stage wherein, due to the mature practice of yoga, the mind is restrained, and one sees the self in the self and rejoices — that is the highest."

Self seeing Self — the loop closes. The seeker discovers there was only ever the sought.