Ātman (Hinduism)
The Atman or Atma is a philosophical term used within Hinduism and Vedanta to identify the soul. Some schools such as Advaita see the soul within each living entity as being identical with Brahman - the all-pervading soul of the universe, whereas other schools such as Dvaita differentiate between the individual atma in living beings, and the Supreme atma (Paramatma) as being at least partially separate beings. Thus atman can be used to describe an individual soul (jiva) or the impersonal 'supreme' depending on the speaker's philosophical point of view.
Schools of thought
In Advaita the Atman is 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 Vedanta calls the all-pervading aspect of Brahman Paramatman, 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. Dvaita Vedanta 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).
Adherents to Jainism also believe in the atman.
See also
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