Jiva (the living being)

The jiva is the soul as wanderer in transmigration: the conscious witness that, bound by karma, cycles through birth and death until self-realization frees it; the jiva-Brahman relation is the central theme of Vedanta. In the processed verses its true calling is 'inquiry into reality' — 'jivasya tattva-jijnasa' (SB 1.2.10); and when the Lord is seen within the self, its heart-knot is cut, its doubts severed, its karmas dissolved (1.2.21).

Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa 1.2.10 — Sanskrit Wikisource (pinned oldid=110173)