Purusha

The Samkhya term for pure, inactive consciousness, standing in permanent contrast to the active material principle it observes but never merges with.

interpretation. Interpretation — one way of reading the material among several.
Tradition: hinduism Theme: metaphysics Theme: dualism Theme: consciousness

Purusha is the Samkhya term for pure consciousness, and this archive gives it a dedicated page because the term does real technical work that the archive's tradition pages on Samkhya and Yoga Darshana had already been using without a proper home to send a curious reader to.

A plurality of inactive witnesses

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Related in the archive

Concept

Atman

A term for the innermost self explored in the Upanishads — its nature, and its relation to ultimate reality, are debated across traditions.

Concept

Prakriti

The Samkhya term for the single, dynamic material principle whose activity accounts for the entire observable world, including mind and mental activity.

Concept

Moksha

Liberation or release, framed as the ultimate aim in several Indian traditions — with each defining what it means differently.

Tradition

Samkhya

A dualist philosophical system distinguishing pure consciousness from the material world it observes, offering a genuinely different metaphysics from Vedantic non-dualism.

Tradition

Yoga Darshana

The philosophical school systematizing yoga as a disciplined path paired with Samkhya metaphysics, distinct from the broader family of practices covered under the general concept of yoga.

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