Atman (Hinduism)

From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)

Advaita philosophers believe that individual "personal" souls exist as Maya only. Dvaita philosophy claims that there is an eternal plurality of souls as per Bhagavad Gita 2.12.

Advaita posits an ultimate ātman (synonymous in this sense with Brahman) as the all-pervading soul of the universe: the universal life-principle, the animator of all organisms, and the world-soul. This view is of a sort of panentheism (not pantheism) and thus is sometimes not equated with the single creator God of monotheism. Dvaita calls the all-pervading aspect of Brahman Paramatman (Paramatma), quantitatively different from individual Atman.

Identification of individual souls, or jiva-atmas, with the 'One Atman' is the monistic Advaita Vedanta position, which is critiqued by dualistic/theistic Dvaita Vedanta (which claims reality for both a God functioning as the ultimate metaphorical "soul" of the universe, and for actual individual "souls" as such) and compromise schools like Vishishtadvaita Vedanta. The 'dvaita' (or dualist) schools, therefore, in contrast to Advaita, advocate an exclusive monotheistic position wherein Brahman is made synonymous with Vishnu.

By contrast, Jiva is the psychological or phenomenological self, the "I" which appears as the subject of verbs. The jiva is typically regarded as having its freedom limited by the triple bond of anava (ego), karma (action) and maya (illusion).

Jainism also believes in the atman.

--Angel 16:49, 19 May 2006 (CDT)