Purusha

Purusha (पुरुष) — the person, the spirit — is in the Samkhya-Yoga system the conscious principle that stands opposite and witness to nature (prakriti). In the Vedas it is the cosmic man whose sacrifice creates the world.

Overview

The Rig Veda’s Purusha Sukta (10.90) imagines a thousand-headed being whose dismemberment issues the worlds, the castes, the Vedas — the first cosmogony of sacrifice. Samkhya reworks the term: purusha is pure consciousness, uncreated, plural, motionless, present in each being; prakriti — one, evolving, unknowing — displays her dance for the spirit’s vision. Bondage is their non-separation; liberation (kaivalya) is their discernment. Patanjali’s Yoga inherits the dualism: the seer (drashta) abides in his own nature when the mind’s waves cease. Vedanta absorbs purusha into Brahman; the Gita’s usage oscillates deliberately — purusha as witness, as Supreme Person (Purushottama in chapter 15).

Significance

The purusha–prakriti pair is India’s classic analysis of consciousness and matter, and the source of the classical body–soul debates that Buddhist and Vedantic schools answered differently.

Verification notes

• The Purusha Sukta, Samkhya Karika, and Gita citations are canonical.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).