Thanks. That’s the standard explanation ~ the atan ~ analogous to the soul.
The main differences in Hindu understanding of the atma and liberation are the Shankara school and Vaishnava school. Shankara school is monist (God is not a person, liberation or salvation destoys the individuality of the atma) and dualist - the atma is always an individual, even in the liberation condition, and the ultimate reality of God is Sri Bhagavan, the Supreme Person, whose light or aura is the jyoti which the monists desire to merge into.
An interesting side note is that Mahadeva Shiva admits in various Puranas that he appeared as Shankaracharya to purposely mislead people into monism (for a good purpose, ultimately) and at the very end of his life, Shankara admitted that the Supreme God is indeed a Person, and that the Brahman light is merely His glow.