Prakṛti
Prakṛti (प्रकृति) — From pra + kṛ — "primary doing, original activity." In Sāṃkhya philosophy, Prakṛti is primal matter — the uncaused, undifferentiated source of all material existence. Everything in the phenomenal world — from gross matter to the subtlest mental operations — evolves from Prakṛti. It operates through the three guṇas. Puruṣa (pure consciousness) is Prakṛti's eternal partner and witness: consciousness observes, matter acts. The confusion between Puruṣa and Prakṛti — taking the body-mind complex for the self — is, in Sāṃkhya, the root of bondage.
In Brief
- From pra + kṛ — "primary doing, original activity." In Sāṃkhya philosophy, Prakṛti is primal matter — the uncaused, undifferentiated source of all material existence. Everything in the phenomenal world — from gross matter to the subtlest mental operations — evolves from Prakṛti. It operates through the three guṇas. Puruṣa (pure consciousness) is Prakṛti's eternal partner and witness: consciousness observes, matter acts. The confusion between Puruṣa and Prakṛti — taking the body-mind complex for the self — is, in Sāṃkhya, the root of bondage.
From pra + kṛ — "primary doing, original activity." In Sāṃkhya philosophy, Prakṛti is primal matter — the uncaused, undifferentiated source of all material existence. Everything in the phenomenal world — from gross matter to the subtlest mental operations — evolves from Prakṛti. It operates through the three guṇas. Puruṣa (pure consciousness) is Prakṛti's eternal partner and witness: consciousness observes, matter acts. The confusion between Puruṣa and Prakṛti — taking the body-mind complex for the self — is, in Sāṃkhya, the root of bondage.