ahanta Sanskrit word meaning ‘indestructible’, ‘unchangeable’, ‘eternal’. In traditional Hindu philosophical thought, the truly real was thought to be indestructible and eternal. Thus, because the Upanishadic Brahman and its subjective counterpart, the Atman, were regarded as the truly real, they were thought to be unchangeable and eternal. The Hindu religious classic, the Bhagavad Gita (probably written between the fifth and the second century B.C.), made ahanta a well-known concept through the teachings of Krishna, who advised Arjuna that even though one’s body may perish one’s soul is eternal and indestructible, thus implying that the human soul contains the essence of the divine reality. See also BHAGAVAD GITA, BRAHMAN. D.K.C.