Purusha

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. In specific philosophical contexts, this term denotes the universal principle that signifies the ultimate reality beyond physical form and individual identity
2. In certain philosophical teachings, this concept represents the fundamental essence of consciousness that transcends individual existence and manifests as the ultimate reality
3. This term, in various spiritual doctrines, refers to the supreme self or cosmic consciousness that encompasses all existence and transcends material forms

Etymology: Sanskrit "puruṣa" means "person" or "man," and in the Upanishads and later Hindu philosophy it came to name the conscious self or spirit, the principle that stands apart from matter. The Sankhya school gave the idea its most sharply defined form, setting purusha, the passive, witnessing consciousness, against prakriti, the active material nature that produces the physical world. In that system, purusha is not a personal soul in the Western sense but a pure awareness that is not changed by what it observes. English borrowed the word from Sanskrit, and in the philosophical senses it retains the meaning it had in those traditions. The word is used mainly in discussions of Indian thought and of Sankhya and Yoga, where it marks the conscious witness as distinct from the body, the mind and the material world.

Synonyms: soul, spirit