The Sanskrit terms Purush and Prakriti are thought to denote the male and female principles. But these terms are gender-neutral, as is evident from the following popular story:
Sita was once asked, “What is Purush and what is Prakriti?” She replied, “Mein Purush hoon, I am Purush. And Ram sahit, along with Ram, all this is my Prakriti.”
To think that ‘Purush’ refers to only the masculine gender, that is, male energy, and that Prakriti, as nature, is only feminine energy, is to take a narrow view of what is really an expansive and inclusive perspective of creation. The Rig Ved describes Purush as the primal individual from whose body the universe was created; Purush is both the sacrificer and the sacrificed. The Mundaka Upanishad says, “Splendid and without a bodily form is this Purush, without and within, unborn, without life breath and without mind, higher than the supreme element. From Purush are born life breath and mind. Purush is the soul of all beings.”
Kaivalya Upanishad of Krishn Yajurved talks of Asvalayana approaching Brahma and asking to be initiated into brahmavidya, divine wisdom, after which the wise can free themselves from all sins and attain Purush – the Supreme of the supreme. Hence, Purush is variously described as the spirit, individual, Self, or as pure consciousness.
In the Atma Upanishad, Vedic sage Angiras states that Purush manifests as three types of Atman, Self: Ajayat-Atman, external Atman, the born self or body; Antar-Atman, the internal Atman, individual soul; and the Paramatman, the highest Atman, Brahmn, the universal soul.
Within the Samkhya and Yog traditions, Purush, often associated with the masculine, stands in contrast to Prakriti, representing the feminine, from which originate all living and non-living entities and all mental and psychological experiences. It exists in a primal state, eternally transcending direct perception. When Prakriti, often depicted as the feminine aspect, encounters Purush, alluded to as the masculine spirit, it initiates a transformative journey, culminating in forming the present material universe.
An interesting contemporary anecdote during Barack Obama’s second US presidential campaign reflects the potential synergy of Purush and Prakriti even when we see them as male and female energies. Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, on the campaign trail in Michigan, stopped for a meal at a local diner in a remote area. An attendant came up to Michelle and whispered something to her.
‘Wow!’ exclaimed Michelle and followed the attendant towards the back office of the diner where the owner met up with her. After 30 minutes, she came back laughing and beaming. Obama asked her, “What happened, where did you go?”
“I was invited by the owner of the diner to meet him in his office. He was in college with me!” And she added, smiling, “He used to be my boyfriend.”
“That’s great, if you had married him, you could have owned this nice diner in remote Michigan,” said Obama. Michelle smiled and replied, “Then he would have been the US president!”
Michelle played an important role in Obama’s presidential campaign as a charismatic source of inspiration, adding value to the campaign. When Purush and Prakriti work seamlessly, they set in motion a progressive process that ultimately leads to the creation of a remarkable material cosmos that is expansive and inclusive, transcending gender divides.
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