jiva, in Indian philosophy and religion, and particularly in Jainism and Hinduism, a living sentient substance akin to an individual soul.
In the Jain tradition, jivas are opposed to ajivas, or “nonliving substances.” Jivas are understood as being eternal and infinite in number and are not the same as the bodies that they inhabit. In a pure state (mukta-jiva), they rise to the top of the universe, where they reside with other perfected beings and are never again reborn. Most jivas are, however, bound to samsara (rebirth in mundane earthly existence), because they are covered with karmas—fine particulate substances that accumulate on the jiva (in the same way that dust particles accumulate on oil) on account of both actions and emotions.
Jivas are categorized according to the number of sense organs possessed by the bodies that they inhabit. Humans, gods, and demons possess the five sense organs plus intellect. Lesser beings have between two and five sense organs. Clusters of minute beings, called nigodas, belong to the lowest class of jivas, which possess only the sense of touch and undergo such common functions as respiration and metabolism but have little hope of ever progressing to a higher spiritual or bodily state. The whole space of the world is packed with nigodas. They are the source of souls that take the place of the infinitesimally small number that have been able to attain moksha, release from samsara.
Many Hindu thinkers employ the term jiva to designate the soul or self that is subject to reincarnation. Since many Hindu schools of thought do not regard selfhood as intrinsically plural, however, they typically understand these individual jivas to be parts, aspects, or derivatives of the atman, the universal self that is in turn identical to brahman, or absolute reality. In this usage, jiva is short for jiva-atman, an individual living being.