नत्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः ।

न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम् ॥ २-१२ ॥

Meaning: In terms of absolute reality, neither you will be gone, nor I will be gone. (Not only you and me,) All these people are also not going anywhere. They were there earlier and will be there in future and this rule applies for everyone.

We discussed about Absolute Reality and Apparent Reality earlier (click to read). Here Krishna talks about Absolute Reality. He says to Arjuna that you will be there forever and I will be there forever. This is true now as well as in future also. True existence of you/me/all these people is guaranteed. All of us will be there forever. What he is implying is that the true nature of you, me, and everyone is आत्मा(aatma) and it is नित्यम्(nityam). If you know this, immediately there exists no such worry or conflict about people who are present now, or will be dead in future, about you being there or dying.

In article on Bhagwad Gita 2-11 (click to read), it was mentioned that नित्यम्(nityam) or आत्मा(atma) is something that stays forever. आत्मा(atma) is also called as ब्रह्मन(brahman). It is something which lasts beyond boundaries of person, space and time. Moreover, आत्मा(atma) is something that can not be described, and it is really futile to try to describe it. On the other hand, if we look at the way we understand everything around us, we will realise that we understand by means of attributes or description about something. We can understand only those things that can be described. In other words we can understand only those things that are cognizable using our organs such as mind, eye, skin, nose, ear or tongue etc. Now, here is something that can not be described, so how do we really understand it? To help us understand the indescribable, scriptures have taken a path to describe "what it is not". So, rather than describing about आत्मा(atma), the scriptures describe what आत्मा(atma) is not. This approach of negation is really helpful and it would arise curiosity within us which in turn will lead us to understand what आत्मा(atma) really is.

अनात्मा(anatma) consists of anything that appears separately from आत्मा(atma). आत्मा(atma) is present everywhere and hence theoretically there is no place where अनात्मा(anatma) can exist. However, अनात्मा(anatma) does exist. How does it exist? Where does it exist? How to distinguish between आत्मा(atma) and अनात्मा(anatma)? To understand this, let's first learn about two kinds of reality - Absolute reality and Apparent reality. अनात्मा(anatma) has something called as "Apparent reality", whereas आत्मा(atma) has something called as an "Absolute reality".