Man is Atman

The fourth attribute that MSwamiji tells as Common Bases of Hinduism in his lecture at Lahore is:

Man is not just the physical body or the
finer body called mind. But he/she is Atman which
takes to a body again and again till it realizes it is
free. Thus body is not the real identity of man.
Fear of death is less and even non-existent in many.

We always forget that this world is a means to an end, and not an end itself. If this were the end we should be immortal here in our physical body; we should never die. But we see people every moment dying around us, and yet, foolishly, we think we shall never die; and from that conviction we come to think that this life is the goal. That is the case with ninety - nine per cent of us. This notion should be given up at once. This world is good so far as it is a means to perfect ourselves; and as soon as it has ceased to be so, it is evil. So wife, husband, children, money and learning, are good so long as they help us forward; but as soon as they cease to do that, they are nothing but evil. If the wife help us to attain God, she is a good wife; so with a husband or a child. If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.