Within the Brahma Sūtras, the jīva, or individual self, stands at the very heart of the inquiry into bondage and liberation. It is described as a conscious principle that is distinct from the body and mind, the knower and experiencer in empirical life, and yet ultimately grounded in Brahman, the supreme Self. The Sūtras treat the jīva as beginningless and conscious, but also as conditioned by ignorance and karmic impressions, which give rise to its sense of limitation and separateness. This apparent individuality is not absolute; it persists only so long as ignorance obscures the jīva’s true nature as Brahman. Thus, the jīva serves as the focal point through which questions of suffering, moral responsibility, and spiritual fulfillment are addressed.

The Brahma Sūtras also portray the jīva as the agent and enjoyer under the sway of limiting adjuncts such as body, senses, and mind. Because of these conditions, it accrues karma, transmigrates through various bodies and realms, and experiences the fruits of its actions as pleasure and pain. The diversity of individual destinies, the inequality of birth, and the continuity of personal identity across lives are all explained through this ongoing journey of the jīva. Yet, the texts consistently point back to Brahman as the inner Self that pervades and supports this entire process, so that every description of the individual ultimately hints at the universal.

A central concern of the Sūtras is to reconcile scriptural passages that speak of the self as limited with those that proclaim its infinitude. This is done by showing that references to the individual self, when properly understood, point to Brahman itself, with the sense of limitation arising from superimposition and ignorance. The jīva’s apparent separateness is thus treated as valid for empirical dealings but sublated in the light of true knowledge. When that knowledge arises, the distinction between jīva and Brahman is dissolved, and the jīva abides in its highest state, free from further transmigration and karmic bondage.

In this way, the significance of the jīva in the Brahma Sūtras lies not merely in describing an individual soul, but in presenting the entire drama of spiritual evolution. The jīva is the seeker, the sufferer, and the potential knower of Brahman, whose journey from bondage to liberation gives concrete meaning to the otherwise abstract teachings of Vedānta. Liberation is portrayed as the realization of non-difference from Brahman, in which ignorance falls away and the jīva’s true, ever-free nature is recognized. The Sūtras thus make the jīva the pivotal concept through which the relation between the finite and the infinite is both problematized and resolved.