What is Purusha and Prakriti?
The Two halves of our reality are Purusha and Prakriti. Which also means Man and Woman. The idea of two beings has always been present in our system. In order to balance the scale of our world, God/Brahma created two beings that were expected to drive the world. According to the Upanishads, in the start of the world, the Purusha existed. As he started feeling lonely, he divided himself into two and the second part was known as the Prakriti.
Prakriti is the second half of the Purusha. The translation of Purusha is Man/Culture and the translation of Prakriti is Woman/Nature. In the Hindu system/society, we have always seen a patriarchal world where the drivers of rules and regulations are majorly men. The women are seen as the receiver of the laws and the executionists through their code of conduct. They become the example of the rules that are set forth.
The ancient texts like Vedas and Upanishads were not concentrated on explaining the society rules, gender ideologies or social problems. It was majorly focused on the metaphysical world and the two halves were used as a medium to explain the working of the universe and the system as a whole. It also explains the reason why the world was created in the first place.
Features of Purusha and Prakriti
In the above sections, we did a brief description of the concepts of Purusha and Prakriti. Here, we will attempt to shed a stronger light on the features of the two halves that collectively start the world.
| Purusha (Man) | Prakriti (Woman) |
| Spirit of a Person | Matter |
| Subject – which feels | Object – which is felt |
| Conscious being | Stimulating environment |
| Observer | Observation |
| Inner Reality (Soul) | Outer Reality (Gender/Form) |
Purusha is understood as the soul of a person while Prakriti is the mind and the matter. The soul does not have a gender, form or even a name. It travels from one human being to another as a set of clothes. But the Prakriti is the outer reality that is seen by the rest of the world. It takes the form of gender or a form through which it conducts the actions of daily life.
The Essence of Purusha and Prakriti
The Purusha does not change and remains still. The evolution of an individual is based on the spiritual growth of the soul through the actions of the outer self. But overall, its form does not change through time or space. It is the essence that puts life into a body.
On the other hand, the Prakriti keeps changing and evolving. It offers the case for a soul and a medium through which the actions are actually done. Purusha is treated as a perfect thing that does not need to change at all. It is not a part of the world, it is an extension of the Divine and the Parmatma. Prakriti or Nature on the other hand is everything that you see in this world. The Purusha and Prakriti have to interact with each other for the world to work effectively and efficiently.
The ultimate goal of human life is to help in the creation of a balance in nature. Other beings in this world are found lower on the creation ladder. The humans are expected to ensure that other beings are taken care of and the world runs smoothly.
Can Purusha and Prakriti Remain Autonomous?
Although there are statements given that the Prakriti was created by Purusha because of fear and loneliness. But it also means that Purusha cannot survive without Prakriti and vice versa. Each needs the other to survive. They come into being together and cannot remain independent. In order to understand this complex nature in a better manner, you can always look at the different animals and their genders. The relationship between both paves way for new life.
Relativity of Directions with the Two Halves
The learned and enlightened souls in our society have made attempts to explain the relationship between the two. They strongly highlight that the understanding of a Purusha cannot be done without Prakriti as both complement each other. The North and the Right Side are often associated with the Purusha and the Left and the South Directions are related to the Prakriti. The feminine things in nature are all given the connectivity to Prakriti.
The left side was chosen for Prakriti because that is where the heart resides. Emotions and passion signify feminism. The right side on the other hand is quiet and represented by the Purusha.
The North side has the Pole star which represents the soul in particular and that is why the side is assigned to Purusha. Prakriti on the other hand is represented by matter that resides in the Southern direction. Similarly, there are several other elements in nature that symbolise the soul and the matter in one way or another. With this, they are given the category of Purusha and Prakriti.
The biological observations of gender – male and female stem out of the same diversification of basic characteristics and who they associate with Purusha and Prakriti.
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