What do hare krishnas believe about Purusha and Prakriti

October 22, 2003

Every single sentence that a saint speaksis important and contains a deep meaning. In Swami Saradananda's The Essence of the Gita (Chennai: Ramakrishna Math, 2000) there is a wonderful statement (p. 66): `The sage Kapila, the father of the Samkhya philosophy, says that the creation of the world is an amazing enterprise of nature (Prakriti) designed specifically to make the Self (Purusha) realize its own glory.'

We in our present state of mind can't see or understand Purusha or Prakriti. But we can see that the sentence is directly addressed to us ordinary people. So let us read the sentence from our standpoint. We shall then discover something extraordinary in it.

I

We perceive so many things in the world. The world is such an attractive place that at every turn we see something beautiful and interesting. We enjoy the beauty of the world around us. But, not satisfied with what we see around us, we wish to see more. So we take the earliest opportunity to book tickets to travel to different places of interest whenever we get leave. We go on long tours, see monuments and natural scenarios, enjoy the delicacies of those places, and return with great joy. This joy, however, is there for a few days only, because we are eager to visit some more places the next time. Nothing quenches our thirst. We feel that if we miss visiting some important tourist attraction, our life is wasted. `That place is meant for us only,' we think. The same is the case with movies, TV programmes, books, etc.

Then comes hearing. Numerous cassettes and CDs are being released every day. We read reports and reviews about new releases and buy as many as possible. But our desire to listen somehow appears to be insatiable. When we hear that some famous singer or artiste performed the previous night and we didn't go there, we feel as if we have lost something great. The same, again, is the case with listening to famous speakers, and so on, but not listening to the song of birds. Where are birds in cities today?

The question of food is better left untouched. I don't mean to say we are gluttons, but somehow we can't be satisfied with anything we eat. Satiation is difficult when it comes to the tongue. Let alone newer and newer items that are prepared, even ordinary things prepared a few days back will attract us immensely when prepared some days later. There are some things--like the potato for certain races, for instance--which may be termed chiranutanam--eternally new. The more we eat them, the more they appear tasty. Having eaten them a few hours back is of no consequence at all--we want more now!

So far as touch is concerned, all our life we have been enjoying the pleasant experience of soft touch, but still we keep on searching for softer things. And smell? The best incense of the world or the best fragrance ever produced will become stale a few days later. We seek newer ones.

Thus we think that the world has been made for us alone; that we are here to enjoy the world to the fullest extent; that without enjoying the world to the maximum we are not only depriving ourselves of the joy of it, but depriving the world too of a grand opportunity of serving us!

So when Swami Saradananda remarks that the world has been created for the glorification of Purusha, we literally imagine that we are all Purushas, and the world is meant for our glorification.

But is this true?

II

We have made only one terrible mistake in assuming that we are Purushas and that the world or Prakriti is meant to give us enjoyment. What is that mistake? We are suffering from a problem called mistaken identity. We are calling ourselves Purushas, but the `we' which we are referring to is actually Prakriti and not Purusha!

It may appear nonsensical, but it is true. What we call Purusha in our present state of mind is nothing but Prakriti. How is this possible? Let's explain.

First of all we assume we are Purushas and the world is Prakriti. Unfortunately we think that the world is separate and we are separate; that the things of the world are different, and we are different. That is, we have a subject-object relationship with the world. We think that we are the enjoyers and the world is the object of enjoyment. We don't identify ourselves with the world. The reasons for this non-identification could be many. First, we may not see any reason at all why we should become one with the world. Second, we may not understand how to make our- selves one with people, trees and plants, animals and birds and everything else around. Third, we may not find any use in doing so at all. Whatever the reason, we feel it easier to be separate from the world. We feel that by being separate, we can draw the utmost benefit from the world.

This is not to say we are wrong in thinking so. For all practical purposes, we ordinary people find that the world is indeed separate from us. But there is a paradox here. When we say we are Purushas and have come to enjoy the world, we have landed in a paradoxical situation: we are imagining that we are Purushas, destined to enjoy the world, and at the same time imagining that we are separate from the world. Superficially there appears to be no paradox here at all; it all appears to be perfectly sensible. But there is a paradox, and a dangerous paradox. And that paradox is, we are making Purusha and Prakriti one! We have become Advaitins in a negative way without our knowledge! We are mistaking Purusha for Prakriti, and Prakriti for Purusha!

III

All this needs some explanation. We should know who the Purusha is. Who is the Purusha? The Purusha is not what we imagine him to be; we imagine that our body and mind are the Purusha. The Purusha is not either. That is the essential mistake we ordinary people make. The Purusha is something beyond both body and mind. What are the body and mind then? Is this dear body, which I consider so dear, not Purusha then? Is my mind not the Purusha then?

Unfortunately not. Though we love our body immensely and consider it the be-all and end-all of our lives, it is not the real `we'. Otherwise our hands would have thought and imagined so many things; our legs would have drawn so many things and written so many books. Until our mind orders them, we can see for ourselves that our body can't do anything at all. So with the mind. `We think, therefore we are'--is a sensible statement. But in that sensible statement, it is mentioned clearly that `we' are different from `thinking'. We make use of something to think. If we were the mind, we would be called mad people: one moment in Calcutta and the next in California; one moment in joy and the very next in misery. And the moment we get a blow, all our mental powers are gone! Is this our fate? Is the real `we' so helpless? Could this be the fate of us who claim to have come to enjoy the world and rule it? That can't be. So we aren't the body and the mind.

We are something different. That something different has been termed Purusha by the Samkhyans. According to these great scientists, we are all Purushas, really. There are more than six billion Purushas in our own species and at least ten times that number in the animal world. So many Purushas there are!

The other entity is Prakriti. If there are more than about 25 billions Purushas in today's world, how many Prakritis could be there? Only one! Unimaginable, but true. There is only one Prakriti, and that is catering to the needs of the billions and billions of Purushas. How could this be possible?

It is like this. Let us reduce everything, and the universe itself, into its smallest component. Let's call it the atom. Going still further, let us reduce the atoms too to some fundamental component. What remains will be not billions of items, but just one thing, called matter. Today's scientists have equated matter also with energy. So there is only one thing: either it is matter or energy.

The Samkhyans had evolved a different method to reduce things to their fundamental elements. Going backwards, they said that there are only five elements: earth, fire, air, water and space. Combine these five in different ways, and the universe and all that we see are formed. These five things have subtle entities, out of the permutation and combination of which the gross elements have been formed. Those subtle elements are five, but they have come from something subtler. That is called Ahamkara--the individuality principle. This is derived from Mahat. The Mahat is formed of the three fundamental components--sattva, rajas, and tamas. It is these three that go together to form what has been called Prakriti. So since all that we see, hear, smell, taste, and experience in the world can be reduced to only these three components and finally to Prakriti alone, Prakriti is one and only one. Though we may see innumerable items from cotton to the star, everything is made of one Prakriti only.

Why can't Purusha also be one? The Samkhyans say that Purushas can't be one. The reason is, if you get enlightenment, I am not automatically enlightened. If you feel happy, my misery won't end spontaneously. So we are different. Thus Purushas are different. What are the Purushas made up of? Purushas are nothing but Truth, Bliss and Beauty. They are the sources of all true happiness and joy. But they have got entangled in the clutches of Prakriti. How is that?

IV

Just as we imagine that the world is meant for our enjoyment, the Purusha imagines that the body in which he resides and the mind which he uses are he himself. This false identification brings bondage, or what is called in common parlance, desire for enjoyment of the world. That is precisely what we are doing now. We are Purushas in realityfull of bliss and freedom and eternal joy. But we think we are the bodies and minds, and so we become immersed in the world. The body and the mind are products of Prakriti, as we saw. Everything is a product of Prakriti. Like attracts like, and so Prakriti attracts Prakriti. So they get attached to one another.

Is it wrong for Prakriti to be attached to Prakriti? Is it wrong for our bodies and minds to be attached to the world? We shall put a counter question: Is falsehood right? Should we entertain falsehood? If the answer is no, then it is wrong for the body and mind to be immersed in the world.

What is falsehood here? To imagine what we are not is falsehood. We are Purushas and not Prakriti. But we imagine, as we discussed above, that we are Prakriti. Since this identification is false, the attachment to the world is also wrong. And what is wrong should immediately be given up. Once we give up false attachments, we become free. We the Purushas shall reside in all resplendence.

V

\Having said this, we shall know what Swami Saradanandaji means by saying that Prakriti or the world is meant for the glorification of Purusha. Purusha would have remained all by himself free and glorious--had there been no Prakriti. For some unknown reason, Prakriti has come close to Purusha. And she has bound him up. What is the true glory of an innocent prisoner, put to jail for no offence of his? His glory is in getting released from bondage.

So the true glory of Purusha is in being released from the hold of Prakriti. To put this in other words, our real glory lies in not identifying with the world or our body and mind, but in realizing what we really are. How can we achieve this seemingly impossible task--a task as difficult as swimming against the current?

We can achieve this goal by firmly giving up what we are not. Why should we give up everything when we are enjoying the world? The same question was asked by a camel which was eating thorns. Its mouth was bleeding, but it thought it was enjoying the meal! We are not the body and therefore let us firmly give up everything that brings the idea that we are the body. All that binds us to the body should be given up. Again, since we are not the mind, let us give up everything that binds us to the mind too. Simply put, let us not fall a prey to any allurement of Prakriti. Let there be a beautiful movie, let there be a beautiful music performance, let there be a grand building somewhere, let there be tasty food--but let us not get attached or attracted to any of them. All the allurements of the world which our five senses get attached to have been simplified by Sri Ramakrishna into two: kamini and kanchana. Then there are two subtle attachments, called desire for name and fame. These four are not attractions, but bondages! We should understand this clearly.

We don't mean that all of us should become mendicant sannyasins by giving up everything. The phrase `giving up' is quite confusing. No one wants us to give up everything. How can we live with our families and friends if we do that? What is meant is, let us give up attachment. Attachment brings only bondage. Let us use what comes of itself. Attachment alone is the source of bondage and let us give that up. Once we give up attachment, we have really given up everything. Then we shall reach our true nature, the Purusha.

So, coming back to Swami Saradanandaji's statement, what is the real glory of the Purusha? The real glory of the Purusha is not in becoming a slave to the senses and the world. There may be millions of allurements all around him, but he must remain firm and show his power of non-attachment. He must not become a slave to the world or to Prakriti. So when Saradanandaji remarks about the Samkhya philosophy `that the creation of the world is an amazing enterprise of nature (Prakriti) designed specifically to make the Self (Purusha) realize its own glory,' what is meant is this: the Purusha is released from bondage.

Nature is there to enslave us, and not give us joy. Our true strength is not in becoming slaves to our passions and desires, but in conquering them. That is one of the greatest lessons Samkhya philosophy teaches us.

October 22, 2003

Do you believe in samkya philosophy? If not, then what is Prakriti and Purusha?

armisael108 · October 22, 2003

I'll simply ask you this... which Kapila is he talking about? Prabhupada warned us about the cheater atheist Kapila that brought atheistic sankhya philosophy.

We do accept sankhya philosophy propounded by the Kapiladeva, son of Devahuti, in the 3rd canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Read Chapters (I think) 24 to 28 or something around that in 3rd canto.