Word.ws English Dictionary

jiva

jiva noun: all living beings; the essence or soul of such beings.

Noun

jiva (uncountable)

  1. (Hinduism, Jainism) All living beings; the essence or soul of such beings.
    • Though in the Panchadasi, Vidyarana Swami mentions Jiva to be a reflection in the internal organ, and as that internal organ is not present in the profound slumbering condition, consequently, then, there should be no Jiva also; but as Prajna, almost ignorant—a form of Jiva—continues in dramless...1886, Nandalal Dhole (translator), Mādhava [Mādhavācharya], A Hand Book of Hindu Pantheism: The Panchadasi, Heeralal Dhole, page 209
    • Some followers of Vācaspati Miśra consider jīva to be limited by the inner sense organ. Being limited, jīva is in this case, distinct from the substratum consciousness of objects which is the all-pervasive consciousness sākṣī. According to this view, jīva is not the material cause of the universe...2006, Sanjukta Gupta, Advaita Vedanta and Vāiṣṇavism: The Philosophy of Madhusūdana Sarasvatī, Routledge, page 50

Origin of jiva

Borrowed from Sanskrit जीव (jīva). Doublet of quick.

Questions about jiva

What does jiva mean?
Jiva means all living beings; the essence or soul of such beings.
What part of speech is jiva?
Jiva is a noun.

Words near jiva in the dictionary

  1. Jiulongpo
  2. jiuniang
  3. Jiuquan
  4. Jiusian
  5. Jiuzhaigou
  6. jiva
  7. jivaatma
  8. jivaatmas
  9. jivadaya
  10. jivamukti
  11. jivanmukta

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jiva (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “jiva.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jiva. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.