Bhagavad Gita 2.20
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः । अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥
na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaṃ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ | ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṃ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre ||
Translation
It is not born, nor does it ever die; nor having existed does it cease to be. Unborn, eternal, everlasting, ancient, it is not slain when the body is slain.
Reflection
What door have you been quietly trying to open for the self that the teaching keeps closing?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Two
The most quoted verse on the atman. Six adjectives in two lines. Aja, unborn. Nitya, eternal. Śāśvata, everlasting. Purāṇa, ancient. Bhūtvā na bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ, neither having come into being nor going to come into being again. The redundancy is the point. Each word closes a door the mind keeps trying to open. The unborn is not a thing that started. The deathless is not a thing that lasts a long time. The ancient is not a thing that is old. The verse is sealing every metaphor by which the mind tries to hold the self as another object among objects.