Here's a beautiful story in Bhagavatam that says who Jeevan( atma) is. 

Once upon a time there lived a King Chitraketu. Though  he had many wives but had no children. So Narada and Sage Angiras adviced the king to do a yagna to a devata Dwashta. The king accordingly performed the said yaga and the yagna prasaddam was given to his eldest wife who conceived and gave birth to a boy.  The other wives got jealous and poisoned the child to death. Both the king and the queen were devastated. Seeing this sage Narada beseeched the Jeevan of the boy to come back into the body make his parents happy again and enjoy rest of his life as the ruler of the the  kingdom. 

The Jivan in turn gave the following reply that is the essence of what or who Jeevan is;

Due to karma I have been thrashed around in various forms as deva, human and animal so in which birth were these two my parents?

One becomes a parent, relatives, friends, enemies for reason of attachment due to desire..

Just as humans are relating with each other thro. gold n other means jeevan is going around such persons..

For a long time human seem to be having a lasting relationship with gold. But the gold is sold that relationship is broken. Therefore how long each material object has relationship with that person is only till the time it belongs to him. So even if Jevan has a relationship with a parent it's not permanent. Only Jeevan is permanent. So Jeevan does not think I'm his etc. Jeevan is attached to the body till the body lasts after that Jeevan loses its attachment, and is free. This Jeevan does not change he's always the same. Jeevan is the basis for every body that comes into existence. Jeevan is swamprakasa roopan, a ruler with powers who with muggunaas creates the world as himself. So Jeevan does not have any favourite, nor favourite of anyone or any ones  friend r enemy. He only watches the good n bad action done by the body, as a witness, as a bystander.

So Jeevan, does not enjoy good or bad, nor enjoy kingdom. Nothing affects him nor pain or suffering. So he does not care about worries of the body. Therefore there is no relationship between Jeevan and the body. They are separate.

So saying to sage Narada, the Jeevan left.

Ack. Translated from article by  K.Jayaraman, Jeevan unarthiya Nilai,  Shriramakrishna Vijayam, March 2021.

 

All things great n small the Lord God made them all

 The story of a mosquito.

Once upon a time there lived a King and his kingdom was very prosperous. The first reason was he was wealthy, secondly he had no enemies in the borders threatening to invade. Now the happy king with his loving queen and obedient children ( waiting patiently for their turn instead of despatching their father hastily from the throne) had no worry except occasional bad stomach due to frequent heavy meals which he indulged in due to no other earth shaking events like war etc.

One day as he was happily snoring on his soft peacock bed a mosquito appeared (though the kingdom was faraway from Mambalam) and it's soft drone in ragamalika, near the king’s ear disturbed his sleep. He woke and cursed the mosquito and loudly complained to God as to why he created a creature like a mosquito in such a perfect wonderful world.

The King forgot all about the good mosquito but the good Lord above had other plans. Suddenly a neighbouring king perhaps bored of no hostilities found that his soldiers were getting lazy of earning without any work( read killing) and consequent suffering from ailments like diabetes, blood pressure etc. decided to address the issue pronto as he also suspected that the army commander who was equally bored, was perhaps planning a coup. So the King decided to declare war on our happy Kings kingdom. Thus a war broke out just like that ( now that’s how most wars happen) and our hero king soon lost his kingdom ,wife etc en bloc. He fled the kingdom to save his life and found a safe spot in a jungle.

Not happy with capturing the kingdom minus the King the neighbouring king in his infinite wisdom dispatched forth a formidable army to capture our hero.

One day when the poor tired ex king was sleeping in the jungle he woke up with a start as he was bitten by a, Yes your right, the real hero of the story, a mosquito! As the fugitive king woke up he saw at a distance armed men apparently come to capture him. The ex King realising the danger quickly escaped to a nearby mountain and hid in a cave.

In safety he pondered about the narrow escape and thanked the mosquito err god above or both. The ex king then realised that the every creature in this planet has a right to exist for its own sake and we have no right to question the relevance of it's existence, if so, Mosquitoes also may ask what's the relevance of human beings ( sounds more sensible). With due apologies to Shri Mukur Lakshminarasimha chariar from his Thiruppavai lectures Vol I. Pub.Vanathi Publications , Chennai.