Distinction between Purusha and Prakriti
Divine Life
Society Publication: Discourse 3 – Commentary on the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
We look at the world only with
our eyes, and judge things according to the report that is provided through the
medium of the senses. Every perception is a movement of the self towards an
object. Our conclusion that we know the world or we know a thing is conditioned:
firstly, by it having to pass through the mentation, the psychic organ, the
antahkarana; secondly, by the mind
having to think only through the sense organs; thirdly, by the sense organs
having to visualize things as located in space and time. So there is a
threefold defect in human perception which includes social relations and
everything that we regard as ours, or not ours.
The world is not as it appears
to the eyes; it is a whitewash that we see, as the inside bricks and the cement
are not visible to the outer perception.
We are essentially
consciousness. This consciousness is the chaitanya shakti
or the chaitanya purusha, which is
indivisibly present and not divisible under any circumstance. Consciousness has
to be there even between the two parts, which is to say that consciousness is
everywhere.
Sankhya calls the objective
character of perception as prakriti, and the
subjective consciousness which perceives is called purusha.
So the Sankhya divides reality into two phases or blocks of power –
consciousness and matter, subject and object, purusha
and prakriti. Experience is supposed to
be engendered by a contact of consciousness with prakriti;
purusha comes in contact with prakriti. Consciousness is never an
object; prakriti is never a subject. How does the mind or the individual
consciousness experience that a given thing is there or the world is there?
Consciousness appears to
perceive as if there is some object. For
instance, if a red flower is brought near a colorless pure crystal, it will
appear as if the whole crystal is red. The world is never correctly known at
any time, just as there is always a dissimilarity between the colored flower
and the crystal, notwithstanding the fact that the crystal has apparently
assumed the character (redness) of the object. A red-hot iron rod looks like
fire, not like iron. It is glowing, white heat, yet that glow which is white
heat is the fire; and there is something there which is not the fire – namely,
the iron rod. The impact of the heat on the iron rod is such that the rod has
ceased to be there, practically, though it is there really. In a similar
manner, objects assume a reality, as it were, though there is no reality in
them; they are pure transitoriness.
Prakriti
continuously changes its characteristics. It is a continuity that is a flow,
consisting of three strands – namely, sattva, rajas and tamas. Like a wheel that moves when
the car moves, there is a cyclic movement of prakriti through
the gunas of sattva, rajas
and tamas. Prakriti is not a
solid object. There is no such thing as solid objects in this world; there is
only fluxation. A person may appear on a screen, while the person is not really
there at all. Thousands of small frames of film have moved with such rapidity
that the movement could not be caught by the eye.
Likewise, we see that we are
solid objects. But the apparent solidity is just like the solidity of a person
on the screen, while the person is not really there. It is a continuous rapid
movement of frames that gives the illusion of a solid person standing there,
the illusion arising on account of the incapacity of the eyes to catch the
movement. The television waves and high-frequency radio waves are dashing upon
us just now, we can see nothing and hear nothing. Therefore, the world of
perception as a solid thing is a total illusion.
Prakriti,
which is the objectivity of the purusha, i.e.
consciousness, is constituted of three properties, called sattva, rajas
and tamas. Tamas
is inertia, pure inactivity; rajas is
dynamism, distraction and action; and sattva is balance
and harmony. The permutation and combination of these three gunas are the very substance of prakriti. The redness of a flower
is a quality of the flower, but the redness itself is not the flower. The three gunas – sattva, rajas
and tamas – are the very substance of prakriti, and they are the very
essence of movement in this world. These three gunas,
by permutation and combination, create a situation of transparency in the
cosmos, and the indivisible consciousness gets reflected, as it were, in this
transparency, which is suddha tattva. It
is the beginning of the process of the creation of the universe. It is a dream
condition, as it were, where sketches of the future creation are drawn on the
canvas of the mind itself. Thus, from the point of view of Vedanta terminology,
there is a coming down of consciousness, which is Absolute, to the state of
Isvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat, or in the language of Sankhya, prakriti becomes mahat, and mahat becomes ahankara.
The one indivisible ahankara, or Virat, gets divided
into a three-partite state, as it were – the object, the subject, and the
connecting link between the object and subject. These are known as the adhibhuta, adhyatma and adhidaiva. Thus, we see there is a
world outside on account of the division that has taken place, and we are set
aside as subjects perceiving the object outside, not being aware that there is
a connecting link, which is called the adhidaiva,
between the object and the subject. Then there is a continuous solidification
of this objectivity into tanmatras, called
sabda, sparsha, rupa, rasa, gandha – prithvi,
ap, teja, vayu, akasha – the five elements; and we have come down
into the solidity which is this earth.
The individual, who is the
perceiver of this so-called external world, is also constituted only of the
three gunas. The bricks out of which the
world is made are the very bricks that also make our body. So there is an
organic connection between the subject and the object; therefore, our judgments
about things will not be finally tenable if we do not take into consideration
our own involvement in the process of judgment. The mind of the judge plays an
important role in making judgments.
The people in the world are
not only those outside. You are also one of the persons in this world. Hence,
your judgment of people in the world also includes judgment of yourself, which
you are not doing. You think the world is constituted of people who are totally
cut off from you – as in the story of ten people crossing a river.
The movement of prakriti within itself in the form
of the sense organs and the mind on the one hand, and the objects on the other
hand, is taken by us as two different activities taking place. Actually, one
wave is dashing against another wave in the ocean, and two persons are not
actually involved there. All action is cosmic action, as the very concept of
individuality is ruled out in the light of this predicament of all perception
being only a collision of the subjective side of prakriti
with its objective side.
The world is not the maker of
troubles. The world is defective on account of our not being able to isolate
and identify ourselves with the world structure. There is no harmony between
ourselves and the world of objects.
The premise has to be
Universality, and from there we can deduce particularity. But we cannot rise
from particularity to Universality, because particulars cannot tell us that
there is a Universal.
The fundamental reality has to
be ascertained first, and that is possible only by an investigation of the
investigator himself. As Ramana Maharshi was fond of saying, “Whenever you put
a question, tell me who is questioning.”
Therefore, go deep into
yourself.
Continue to
Read:
Sankhya Yoga – Distinction between Purusha and
Prakriti: Commentary on the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
If you would
like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact
the General Secretary at:
