Create groups of five. Discuss & present to each other Your personal answers to the question "What is soul / (How) can/do You define it ?
Vṛtti (वृत्ति) – Fluctuations of the mind (thoughts, emotions, perceptions); most dynamic and gross.
Saṁskāra (संस्कार) – Latent impressions or mental habits left by past vṛttis.
Manas (मनस्) – The sensory mind, coordinating input and response; "inner instrument" of perception.
Citta (चित्त) – The storehouse of impressions, conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind.
Buddhi (बुद्धि) – Intellect, faculty of discernment, reason, and decision-making.
Ahaṁkāra (आहंकार) – Ego-identity, the sense of "I am this body/mind/personality" & "I do this".
Aham (अहम्) – The primordial I-sense, pure self-reference, "the strange loop" symbol.
Jīva (जीव) – The embodied self, individual, distinct soul undergoing experience, transformation and change.
Ātman (आत्मन्) – The true Self, pure consciousness, transcendental soul, unchanging, infinite, witness of all.
And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love. There was a time, I say, when we were one, but now because of the wickedness of mankind the gods have dispersed us ....
(Plato, Symposium)
The Bhagavad Gita (cca. 500 BC) is a philosophical dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and his mythical charioteer Krishna, set on a battlefield symbolizing the inner struggle of human life. It presents a deep psychological model of the self, describing layers of mind—manas (sense-mind), buddhi (intellect), ahamkara (ego), and the true self, atman.
Its Core psychological teaching: freedom arises when one acts without attachment, transcending ego-identification and aligning with the deeper, unchanging Self.