Puruṣa
idea · 7 works · 11 mentions · 30 anchored passages
also in the atlas: Puruṣa the figure
puruṣa · the Self · father · jīva · kṣetrajña · puruṣas · revered puruṣa · the Person · the embodied one · the holy puruṣa
in the texts
Sāṃkhyatattvavivecana
The Self/spirit-principle of Sāṃkhya, whose existence, otherness from prakṛti, non-agency, and plurality are argued through the ten radical topics.
] Existence [of prakṛti], oneness, purposefulness, being-for-another's-sake, otherness, non-agency [of puruṣa], conjunction, disjunction, the plurality of {{puruṣa|Selves}}, and the persistence of the body [as] residual operation (śeṣavṛtti)—[these are the ten].
From the [composite's] being-for-another's-sake, the existence of {{puruṣa|the Self}} is established [as] the cause of the difference of transformation.
] From the inversion [of agency onto prakṛti follows] the non-agency [of puruṣa];
Atharvaveda (Paippalāda)
Cosmic Person, invoked as a riddle subject alongside Death.
I ask thee directly of the Puruṣa — how many are the limbs of Death?
Those who know the sacred power in the Person, they truly know the Pillar.
Where immortality and death and the Person are gathered together;
Paramārthasāra
The conscious principle, contrasted throughout with insentient prakṛti, whose apparent bondage and eventual discrimination from prakṛti constitutes liberation.
Having dispelled the thicket of {{māyā|deluding power}} composed of the {{guṇa|qualities}}s, as the thousand-rayed [sun dispels] darkness, the {{puruṣa|conscious self}}, ranging within and without, becomes [homogeneous] like a solid block of rock-salt.
As the vault of the sky is not [really] soiled by [passing] clouds or by risings of smoke, so the supreme {{puruṣa|conscious self}} is untouched by the modifications of {{prakṛti / mūlaprakṛti|nature}}.
thus he [also] himself apprehends the Person ({{puruṣa|the conscious self}}), the Self, hidden in the cave [of the heart].
Sāṃkhyakārikā
The conscious, inactive self/knower of Sāṃkhya metaphysics, ontologically distinct from prakṛti and its products.
And from that contrariety [of the self to nature] it is established that this puruṣa (self) is a witness, and possesses isolation, neutrality, the role of mere seer, and non-agency.
Superior to both is the [remedy that comes] from the discriminative knowledge of the vyakta / avyakta (the manifest and the unmanifest) and the puruṣa (knower).
By that [knowledge] the puruṣa (self) beholds prakṛti / pradhāna / mūlaprakṛti (nature), who has ceased to produce and, her purpose [accomplished], has withdrawn from the seven forms — [he beholds her] poised like a spectator, fully at ease.
Gaṇapatitattva
The doctrinal concept of the Puruṣa (person/spirit), whose threefold states and liberation are analyzed at length.
There are three special means for the *puruṣa* to liberate the mind, the established means for his liberation.
There are three characteristics of the *puruṣa* at the time of liberation:
> It is the three-fold Śiva, the three-fold Puruṣa;
San Hyan Mahajnana
Puruṣa, pure consciousness/spirit, the metaphysical counterpart to prakṛti, repeatedly correlated with the sun, the father, and the charioteer, and depicted as bound in saṃsāra yet ultimately real.
The likeness of the revered *puruṣa* is one who is in the middle of the waters, terrified like a serpent.
the revered *puruṣa* (pure consciousness/spirit) is said to be the father.
*Know that the vyakta is prakṛti, and they know the avyakta is puruṣa.
Slokantara
A Sāṃkhya cosmological principle (the self/spirit), figured as the ox pulling the cart of time and deeds
for this reason, the holy *puruṣa* has the ox as its embodiment, ordered by the Lord to pull the cart, which carries the good and bad deeds of humanity.
Hold fast to righteous *dharma*, so that you may return to the state of a god once more.
puruṣa is like an ox.