Purusha

“ It descends into the lower nature and thinks itself bound by action, so to enjoy the lower being: it can draw back and know itself as the passive Purusha free from all action. It can rise above the three gunas and, liberated from the bondage of action, yet possess action, even as I do myself, and by adoration of the Purushottama and union with him it can enjoy wholly its divine nature. ”

“ On the other hand, Purusha, the first man, is represented as he out of whose body the world was formed.4 But Purusha is, as we have seen, the prototype of the Mandaic and apocalyptic “son of man.” Herein lies the confirmation of the fact that the “son of man” is none other than Agni, the most human of the Vedic Gods. In the Mazda religion the first mortals were called Meshia and Meshiane, the ancestors of fallen mankind, [131] who expect their redemption at the hands of another Meshia. ”

“ In the Brāhmaṇas, Purusha is the same as the creator, Prajāpati, and in the Upanishads he is identified with the universe. Still later, in the dualistic Sānkhya philosophy, Purusha becomes the name of “soul” as opposed to “matter.” In the Hymn of Man a being called Virāj is mentioned as produced from Purusha. This in the later Vedānta philosophy is a name of the personal creator as contrasted with Brahma, the universal soul. The Purusha hymn, then, may be regarded as the oldest product of the pantheistic literature of India. ”

“ The Second Purusha is the dweller of the Cosmic Egg. The Third Purusha is the pervader of all beings.
Creation is divided into two stages. First the creation of the principles themselves or Tatvas, which unite to form globes and individuals. This is called Kârana creation. Secondly the creation of individuals and of globes. This is called Kârya or resultant creation. Following the law of periodicity, the First Purusha energises the latent Karma or Jiva-record of the previous Kalpa, and prepares the ground for the development of that Karma, by setting Prakriti into active transformation. ”

“ King Prâchina Barhis wondered why such beautiful teachings were with held by his teachers. Or forsooth, they knew not themselves. He requested Nârada however to remove two doubts that were still lurking in his mind. — Purusha acquires karma in one body, but he reaps the fruits of that karma in another body. One body is the doer while another is the enjoyer and sufferer. To one body, the fruits of its own work are lost. To another body, there is an acquisition of fruits it did not sow. ”

“ By casting off the consciousness of body and the senses, by casting off all acts good and bad, by casting off both truth and falsehood, one succeeds in divesting oneself of attributes. The person who realises that inconceivable Purusha and comprehends his subtile existence in the quadruple form of Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Sankarshana, and Vasudeva, and who, in consequence of such comprehension, attains to perfect tranquillity of heart, succeeds in entering into and identifying himself with that one auspicious Purusha. Some persons possessed of learning speak of him as the supreme soul. ”

“ So self is the instructor. Śridhara) "For it is self that finds out final bliss by direct perception and by inference. Wise men, well versed in Sânkhya and Yoga, look upon Me as Purusha pervading all beings, and possessing all powers. (This is according to Śridhara, the direct perception by which final bliss is attained. The word Purusha here has something like the sense of a Monad in Theosophical literature. The passage quoted by Śridhara from the Upanishads to illustrate the idea of Purusha also shews this.) ”

“ The highest philosophy of the Yogi is based upon this fact, that the Purusha is pure and perfect, and is the only "simple" that exists in this universe. The body and mind are compounds, and yet we are ever identifying ourselves with them. This is the great mistake that the distinction has been lost. When this power of discrimination has been attained, man sees that everything in this world, mental and physical, is a compound, and, as such, cannot be the Purusha. ”

“ And the planetary Purusha is separate from the bodies of the planets. There is none to be angry at. Karma can not be the cause of Joy and sorrow. Karma has its sphere in which there is both a conscious and an unconscious element. The unconscious element undergoes transformation and the conscious element in search for the desired object leads to action. But the body is absolutely unconscious. And Purusha (or Self) in man is absolutely conscious. There is no root of Karma either in body or in Purusha.
"Kâla is part of Âtmâ, for Kâla is an aspect of Íshvara. ”

“ Purusha appears to be conceived as the universal essence of the world, all existences 439 being but one-quarter of him. The theory of sacrifice occupies, as in the later Indian literature generally, a prominent position. Purusha's sacrifice involved the momentous consequences of the creation of the several Vedas and of living creatures. ”

“ The ultimate result will be that Prakriti will lose her power to reflect herself in the Purusha ; for the effect of the ego-sense is destroyed and the intelligent will becoming indifferent ceases to be the means of her sanction: necessarily then her gunas must fall into a state of equilibrium, the cosmic play must cease, the Purusha return to his immobile repose. But if there were only the one Pyrusha and this recoil of the discriminating principle from its delusions took place, all cosmos would cease. As it is, we see that nothing of the kind happens. ”

“ He holds the whole creation unto His bosom, and is the sustaining force of all. In the three aspects of Brahmâ, Vishnu and Śiva, he guides the creation, the preservation and the dissolution of the Universe. Those that could not attain His state, though they strove for it equally as eminent as the Second Purusha, that are to become the Second Purusha in perhaps another Kalpa or Brahmânda, are the Lilâ Avatâras. They remain merged in the Second Purusha or Íshvara and they manifest themselves in the Universe, only when a necessity arises for their manifestation. ”

“ No one succeeds in perceiving how he enters into embodied creatures and how he goes out of them. Agreeably to the Sankhya mode, as also with the aid of Yoga and the due observance of the ordinances prescribed by it, I am engaged in thinking of the cause of that Purusha, but alas, I am unable to comprehend that cause, excellent as it is. I shall, however, according to the measure of my knowledge, discourse to thee upon that eternal Purusha and his Oneness and supreme greatness. ”

“ In the language of Hindu philosophers it is the original and eternal combination of Purusha and Prakriti. As the Adwaitees hold that an external object is merely the product of our mental states, Prakriti is nothing more than illusion, and Purush is the only reality; it is the one existence which remains eternal in this universe of Ideas. This entity then is the Parabrahmam of the Adwaitees. ”

“ The Sankhyas say that consciousness is a compound, and beyond that, the last analysis gives us the Purusha, Witness, but that there are many Purushas — each of us is one. Advaita, on the contrary, affirms that Purushas can be only One, that Purusha cannot be conscious, unconscious, or have any qualification, for either these qualities would bind, or they would eventually cease; so the One must be without any qualities, even knowledge, and It cannot be the cause of the universe or of anything. ”

“ If the operation of the intelligent will belongs to Nature, the origination and power of the will proceed from the conscious Soul; he is the Lord of Nature. If the act of intelligence of the Will is the act of Prakriti, the source and light of the intelligence are actively contributed by the Purusha; he is not only the witness, but the Lord and Knower, master of knowledge and will, jnata ishvarah. He is the supreme cause of the action of Prakriti, the supreme cause of its withdrawal from action. In the Sankhya analysis Purusha and Prakriti in their dualism are the cause of: the cosmos ”

“ Purusha is unchanging. It is the light which remains unchanged amidst all the changing modifications of the mind, so that we cannot distinguish purusha separately from the mind. This is what is meant by saying buddheḥ pratisaṃvedī purushaḥ, i.e. purusha reflects or turns into its own light the concepts of mind and thus is said to know it. Its knowing is manifested in our consciousness as the ever-persistent notion of the self, which is always a constant factor in all the phenomena of consciousness. Thus purusha always appears in our consciousness as the knowing agent. ”

“ Purusha reaps the fruits in that very body without break in which it acquires karma, but that body is the Linga Sarira, inclusive of Manas. As in dream man works out the impressions of the wakeful state without changing the body, so he enjoys the fruits of karma created in one birth in the Karma-made body of another birth. ”

“ You see a man going after gold, because behind it is a spark of the Purusha though mixed up with a good deal of dirt. When a man loves his children or a woman her husband, what is the attracting power? A spark of Purusha behind them. It is there, only mixed up with "dirt". Nothing else can attract. "In this world of insentiency the Purusha alone is sentient." This is the Purusha of the Sankhya. As such, it necessarily follows that the Purusha must be omnipresent. That which is not omnipresent must be limited. ”

“ From that universal sacrifice sprang the hymns called Rik and Saman, the Metres, and the Yajus. From it were produced horses, and all animals with two rows of teeth, cows, goats, and sheep. When they divided Purusha, into how many parts did they distribute him? What was his mouth? What were his arms? What were called his thighs and feet? The Brāhman was his mouth; the Rājanya became his arms; the Vaisya was his thighs; the Sūdra sprang from his feet. The moon was produced from his soul; the sun from his eye; Indra and Agni from his mouth ”

“ From this eternal, universal energy, Kapila held that all the universe has been evolved—all material forms or manifestations of energy being but manifestations of Prakriti. But, the Sankhya system is not materialistic, as might be supposed at first glance, for side by side with Prakriti it offers the principle of Purusha, or Soul, or Spirit, of which all individual souls are atomic units—the Principle of Purusha being an Unity of Units, and not an Undivided One. The Purusha—that is, its units or Individual Souls—is regarded as eternal and immortal. ”

“ Īśvara in the Yoga system is that purusha who is distinguished from all others by the fact of his being untouched by the afflictions or the fruits of karma. Other purushas are also in reality untouched by the afflictions, but they, seemingly at least, have to undergo the afflictions and consequently birth and rebirth, etc., until they are again finally released; but Īśvara, though he is a purusha, yet does not suffer in any way any sort of bondage. He is always free and ever the Lord. ”

“ To Purusha Jiva must be always negative, however positive it may be towards the forms of Apara Prakriti. Purusha is always Male. And to Him, Jiva Prakriti is always a female. As the Vaishnavas say, there is only one male in all Vrindâvana and that male is the Lord Sri Krishna. In devotional practice, one should consider himself a female, the male being the Lord of the universe, as reflected in the heart of every man. ”

“ As both Poles belong to the same and one earth, so spirit and matter, or Purusha and Prakriti, are the two ends that lose themselves, in the eternity of unmanifested and the cycles of manifested matter. But like some of our distinguished Western metaphysicians, our opponent seems to regard matter and energy as two distinct things, whereas the Esoteric doctrine recognizes but one substratum for everything visible as invisible—"Purush-Prakriti" and vice versa. ”

“ If there were only one Purusha, there would not be this central independence and separativeness, but all would see the world in an identical fashion and with a common subjectivity and objectivity. Because Prakriti is one, all witness the same world ; because her principles are everywhere the same, the general principles which constitute internal and external experience are the same for all ”

“ The daughter of Kâla is Jarâ or decrepitude.
The Yavanas are diseases or infirmities.
Fear is the King of all diseases and infirmities viz., Death.
Prajvâra is destructive fever.
As long as Purusha does not know his real self, but identifies himself with the Gunas of Prakriti, he becomes subject to births and deaths. The only remedy for this malady is pure devotion to Guru and to Bhagavân. By such devotion, dispassion and wisdom are both acquired.
"Darbha" is Kusa grass, symbolical of Yajna. "Vidarbha" is pure land. "Malaya" or the Deccan is famous for Vishnu worship. ”

“ Prakriti is mechanical, but by being reflected in Purusha it assumes the appearance of consciousness in its activities, and thus there are created those phenomena of creation, conservation, dissolution, birth and life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, sense-knowledge and intellectual knowledge and ignorance, action and inaction, happiness and suffering which the Purusha under the influence of Prakriti attributes to itself although they belong not at all to itself but to the action or movement of Prakriti alone. ”