Jīvātmā

Jīvātmā · jīva-ātmā, “the living self”

Grammar: masculine noun, jīvātman; its nominative form is jīvātmā. A compound of jīva (the living one) and ātman (the self): “the living self”.

Meaning: the self of a living being, the jīva in the body; in the rites of dīkshā, the disciple’s own self, which the guru purifies and joins to Śiva.

In the scriptures: Maheśvara teaches the jīvātmā’s part in the nirvāṇa-dīkshā, as the guru purifies the five kalās one by one.

At the close of the purification of the Śānti kalā, the guru makes Īśvara hear the command of Śiva: “All the pāśas (bonds) of this paśu have been burned; from now on you must not bind him.” He dismisses Īśvara and draws the Raudrī śakti into his own ātmā. Then, as Īśvara gave the moon shelter on his head, so the guru joins the disciple’s jīvātmā with his own ātmā. With the pure udbhava mudrā he places it in the thread, and places that thread of consciousness, whose form is the immortal bindu, on the disciple’s head with the mūla-mantra (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 87).

In the purification of the last kalā, the Śāntyatīta, the guru gives the pūrṇāhuti and dismisses Sadāśiva. The disciple’s jīvātmā, now pure and like the autumn moon, he joins into himself with the Raudrī saṃhāra mudrā. He lifts it out of the disciple’s body with the udbhava mudrā and, for its nourishment, places one drop of arghya water on the disciple’s head. In the yojanā (the joining) that follows, he takes the jīva-caitanya from the dvādaśānta, the region above the forehead, and places it in the middle of the pericarp of the lotus of his own heart. Then, with pūraka and kumbhaka, slowly uttering the mūla-mantra, he meditates on the disciple’s ātmā rising through the tattvas. Leaving each tattva behind, and at the last even the Śakti-tattva, and feeling a divine touch like that of an ant, he meditates that the disciple’s ātmā has dissolved into the Śiva-tattva above the forehead: the supreme tattva, whose form is paramānanda, free of bhāvas, beyond the mind and eternal. After the pūrṇāhuti and the bestowing of the guṇas, he meditates that he has taken from Paramaśiva the ātmā now endowed with the six guṇas and placed it in the disciple’s body (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 88).

Related terms: Jīva · Ātmā · Paramātmā · Dīkshā · Udbhava mudrā · Dvādaśānta

Sources

• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 87–88