Also meaning the individual Soul or jiva-soul or chit-soul.
- Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita contains verses describing the jiva. For example, the jiva is described as eternal and indestructible in Chapter 2, verse 20.
- "If the tip of the hair were to be divided in to one hundred parts and each part was divided into 100 more parts, that would be the dimension of the Jiva (soul)". Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (5.9).
Notes from Kisari Mohan Ganguli in the Mahabharata translation:
- At first there was only jiva or the Soul having knowledge alone for its attribute. When it became clothed with Ignorance, the universe sprang up around it.
- In the Srutis it is said that Brahma has two attributes, Vidya (Knowledge), and Avidya (Ignorance) with Maya (delusion). It is in consequence of this Maya that chit-souls or jivas become attached to worldly things. It is in consequence of this Maya that persons, even when they understand that all is nought, cannot totally dissociate themselves from them.
The five senses, the three attributes of Tamas, Sattwa, and Rajas,--these (together with those which have been mentioned before) constitute a tale of seventeen. These seventeen, which are known by the name of the
Unmanifest, with all those that are called Manifest, viz., the five objects of the five senses, (that is to say,
form, taste, sound, touch, and scent), with Consciousness and the Understanding, form the well-known
tale of four and twenty. When endued with these four and twenty possessions, one comes to be called by
the name of Jiva (or Puman).
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCXXXVI (extract):
Without speaking of the results of the attainment of Brahma by yoga, it may be said that he who sets himself to only enquiring after the Soul transcends the necessity of observing the acts laid down in the Vedas. The body with jiva within it is an excellent car.
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCXLI (extract):
The knowledge is the attribute of the individual soul residing within the body. The individual soul, in its turn, comes from the Supreme Soul. The body with the soul is said to be the attribute of jiva. It is jiva that acts and cause all bodies to live.
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCXLVI (extract):
"Vyasa said, 'The Jiva-soul is endued with all those entities that are modifications of Prakriti. These do
not know the Soul but the Soul knows them all. Like a good driver proceeding with the aid of strong,
well-broken, and high-mettled steeds along the paths he selects, the Soul acts with the aid of these,
called the senses, having the mind for their sixth.
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCLIII (extract):
Wonderful it is to note that jiva, which has to lie within the uterus and amid much internal heat, and which has to pass a period of full ten months in that place, is not digested and reduced to destruction like food within the stomach. Men overwhelmed by the qualities of Rajas (passions) and Tamas (ignorance) never succeed in beholding within the gross body: the Jiva-soul which is a portion of the Supreme Soul of transcendent effulgence and which lies within the heart of every creature.
