“In Indian Hinduism, the soul has two parts. One is called Jiva, which corresponds to the individual soul making its long journey through many lifetimes until it reaches the full realization of God. When a child is taught that being good means your soul will go to heaven, it is Jiva that we are talking about.
Jiva is involved in action. It is affected by our good and bad acts; it rules our conscience. and all the seeds of karma are planted inside it. The kind of person you turn out to be is rooted in Jiva, and the kind of life that you make for yourself will change Jiva day by day.
The second half of the soul, called Atman, does not accompany us on any journey. It is pure spirit, made of the same essence as God. Atman cannot change in any way. It never reaches God because it never left in the first place.
No matter how good or bad your life, your Atman remains constant; in fact, the worst criminal and the holiest saint have the same quality of soul when it is this aspect that is in question. There is no good approximation for Atman in the West (the Western continent that includes the U.S.), and many people might w
onder why the soul has to be divided in this way. the distinction between them is absolutely necessary (in the Eastern world), for otherwise the path back to God would break down. The soul must be half-human and half-divine in order to give us a way to retain our identity in finding God.
You need Jiva to remember who you are personally. You need Atman to remember yourself as pure spirit.
You need Jiva to have a reason to act, think, wish, and dream. You need Atman for the peace beyond all action.
You need Jiva to journey through time and space. You need Atman to live in the timeless.
You need Jiva to preserve personality and identity. You need Atman to become universal, beyond identity.”
How To Know God – The Soul’s Journey Into The Mystery Of Mysteries, Deepak Chopra, p. 275 -276.
