Purusha (पुरुषः)

Purusha (Sanskrit पुरुषः) is a complex concept whose meaning evolved in Vedic and Upanishadic times. Depending on source and historical timeline, it means the cosmic man or Self, Consciousness, and Universal principle.[1][2][3]

During the Vedic period, Purusha concept was one of several theories offered for the creation of universe. Purusha, in Rigveda, was described as a being, who becomes a sacrificial victim of gods, and whose sacrifice creates all life forms including human beings.

In the Upanishads, the Purusa concept no longer meant a being or cosmic man. The meaning evolved to an abstract essence of Self, Spirit and the Universal Principle that is eternal, indestructible, without form and all pervasive.[4] The Purusa concept is explained with the concept of Prakrti in the Upanishads. The universe is envisioned, in these ancient Sanskrit texts, as a combination of perceivable material reality and non-perceivable, non-material laws and principles of nature.[3][7] Material reality, or Prakrti, is everything that has changed, can change and is subject to cause and effect. Purusa is the Universal principle that is unchanging, uncaused but is present everywhere and the reason why Prakrti changes, evolves all the time and why there is cause and effect.[7] Purusa is what connects everything and everyone, according to various schools of Hinduism.

There is a diversity of views within various schools of Hinduism about the definition, scope and nature of Purusa.[2]

Definition

According to the expository Brahmana books or lexicons, ‘Purusha’ has several meanings such as:

1. He who goes ahead (purati agre gachchati)

2. That which fills all with his strength (piparti puurayati balam yah)

3. He who lies inside a township (purshu shete yah).

4. Pur-usha, the dawn in the city; He who is filled with light;

5. Puru-sha – filled with wisdom and eternal happiness; citizen of Heaven

Purusha with its three kaleidoscopic syllables, pu-ru-sha, keeps unfolding in a never-ending play, the image of the creation like a musical theme developed by a skillful musician.

In the Upanishads and later texts of Hindu philosophy, the Purusa concept moved away from the Vedic definition of Purusa and was no longer a person, cosmic man or entity. Instead, the concept flowered into a more complex abstraction.[8]

Both Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hinduism state that there are two ultimate realities whose interaction accounts for all experiences and universe - Prakrti (matter) and Purusa (spirit).[3][10]

Hinduism refers to Purusa as the soul of the universe, the universal spirit present everywhere, in everything and everyone, all the times.

• Purusa is Universal Principle that is eternal, indestructible, without form and all pervasive.
• Purusa is in the form of nature’s laws and principles that operate in the background to regulate, guide and direct change, evolution, cause and effect.[3]
• It is Purusa or Chaitanya form, in Hindu concept of existence, that breathes life into matter, is the source of all consciousness,[2] one that creates oneness in all life forms, in all of humanity, and the essence of Self.
• It is Purusa, the cause in Hinduism, as to why the universe operates, is dynamic and evolves, as against being static.[7]

Both Samkhya and Yoga school holds that the path to moksha (release, Self-realization) includes the realization of Purusha.[11]

Concept of Tad Ekam in Nasadiya Suktam (Rig Veda)

Rig veda clearly talks about the Origin of Creation in the 10th mandala, which is popularly known as the Nasadiya suktam.

न मृ॒त्यु: आसीत् अमृतं॒ न तर्हि॒

"Then not death existed, nor the immortal" (10.129.2)

आनी॑त् अवा॒तं स्व॒धया॒ तत् एकम्तस्माद्धान्यन्न परः किञ्चनास

“That One was breathing without breath, of its own nature (by its own inherent impulse, self-sustaining), There was That One then, and there was no other" (10.129.2).

The implication here is “That One” was alive and waiting to happen, despite the complete absence of the means to exist.

तपस॒: तत्महि॒नअजाय॒तएकम्

"That One, enclosed in nothing (void), was born from heat (tapas)" (10.129.3)

So, prior to creation, the Creation Sukta does not describe a state of "nothingness" but rather "That One (tad ekam)(तद् एकम्)" which is, "Spaceless, timeless, yet in its own way dynamic and the Sole Force, this Absolute.

“This Creation” unfolded & evolved from “Ekam, That One”, which is,The Ultimate Supreme Reality, the Source of Supreme Consciousness. This “Ekam, That One” is the very same “PURUSHA”

Purusha - As in Mundaka upanishad

Mundaka Upanishad is the vedanga of the Atharvana Veda. Verses 2-5 describe the attributes of the Purusha.

दिव्यो ह्यमूर्तः पुरुषः सबाह्याभ्यन्तरो ह्यजः |

अप्रणो ह्यमनाः शुभ्रो ह्यक्षरात्परतः परः  ||२.१.२ ||

Splendid and without a bodily form is this Purusa, without and within, unborn, without life breath and without mind, higher than the supreme element. From him are born life breath and mind. He is the soul of all beings.

— Munduka Upanishad, (Verse 2.1.2 Translated by Klaus Klostermair)[9]

It was said that from that Imperishable Being, everything proceeds; the world is created by That. That Supreme Imperishable is the divine, formless Purusha. Here Purusha is to be understood in the sense of essential Consciousness. The origin of all things is Consciousness. 

Verse 2.1.3 wonderfully describes that from this great Purusha (एतस्माज्जायते), everything comes.

• The cosmic prana (प्राणो), Hiranyagarbha, emanates from this Supreme Brahman.
• The Virat, which is called here the manas (मनः), also emanates from that Brahman.
• The indriyas (सर्वेन्द्रियाणि), or all the sense organs, also emanate from That Purusha. They are actually the feeders, the tentacles of consciousness. 
• The five elements (खं वायुर्जोतिरापः पृथिवी )– earth, water, fire, air and ether; The very Earth that sustains us (पृथिवी विश्वस्य धारिणी), the basis of all, emanate from That.
• The whole Brahmanda, the fourteen worlds, which are the permutations and combinations, modifications of gross forms or subtle forms, or the real forms of the five elements, all these come from one breath, as it were, of this one Supreme Being, the Purusha.

Purusha - As in Atmanopanishad

The abstract idea Purusa is extensively discussed in various Upanishads, and referred interchangeably as maha-atman and brahman (not to be confused with Brahmin).[2]

Rishi Angiras of the Atmopanishad belonging to the Atharvaveda explains that Purusha, the dweller in the body, is three-fold:

• the Bahyatman (the Outer-Atman) which is born and dies
• the Antaratman (the Inner-Atman) which comprehends the whole range of material phenomena, gross and subtle, with which the Jiva concerns himself
• the Paramatman which is all-pervading, unthinkable, indescribable, is without action and has no Samskaras.[12]

The Vedanta Sutras state meaning that 'The Absolute Truth is that from which everything else emanates' Bhagavata Purana [S.1.1.1].[citation needed]

Purusha - As in Sankhya

Sankhya school of Hinduism states that there are two ultimate realities whose interaction accounts for all experiences and universe - Prakriti (matter) and Purusha (spirit). Sankhya analyzes the cosmos into a dualistic, and atheistic scheme.

In other words, the universe is envisioned as a combination of perceivable material reality and non-perceivable, non-material laws and principles of nature.

• Material reality, or Prakrti, is everything that has changed, can change and is subject to cause and effect.
• Universal principle, or Purusa, is that which is unchanging (aksara)[2] and is uncaused.

The Purusha is pure consciousness, is itself inactive yet whose presence disrupts the equilibrium of the three Gunas in their unmanifest condition. The disruption triggers the emergence of the manifested condition of empirical reality we experience, states the text.

The first premise of Sankhya philosophy is the universal fact of suffering. Cutting the root of rebirth is the only way to final emancipation from suffering, according to Sankhya. The only way to fight suffering is to leave the circle of transmigration between births and deaths (samsara) forever. This is the liberation of Purusha, in Sankhya, normally called kaivalya (isolation). It comes about through loosening of the bond between Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha enters into liberation, forever.

Samkhya school holds that the path to moksha (release, Self-realization) includes the realization of Purusha.

Purusha - As in Purusha Suktam

The Purusha Suktam is the most popular Sukta among all the Suktas in the four Veda Mantra Samhitas. It is found with some variations in all of them.

1. In the Rig Veda Mantra Samhita it is the 90^th Sukta in the 10^th Mandala.
2. In the Shukla Yajur Veda Vajasaneya Samhita it is Adhyaya 31.
3. In Taittiriya Aranyaka, it is the 12^th anuvaka in the 3^rd Kanda.
4. It is also found in Sama Veda & Atharva Veda with some variations.

It gives a description of the spiritual unity of the universe. It presents the nature of Purusha or the cosmic being as both immanent in the manifested world and yet transcendent to it. 

The Supreme infinite Reality when expressing through Its own “creativeness” identifies with the Total-Causal-Body and becomes the God (Eswara); and God, when He expresses with the Total-Subtle-Body, identifying with this “Urge-to-create” becomes the Creator (later identified with Brahma, Hiranya-garbha or Prajapati) ; and when the Creator projects forth through the Total-Gross-Body, He comes to play as this universe in space and time (Virat). Cosmic Form of the Lord is Virat Purusha.

When the Creator comes to identify with what He had projected in His Creation, He becomes, the individualised entity (Jiva).

What are the processes and stages through which the Universe had emerged out in this act of Divine Yagna, the great sacrifice?  These are most poetically visualized and sung in the Vedas. The PURUSHA SUKTAM is a Sukta of Praise adoring the Mighty Spirit Divine.

The Purusha is defined and described as a being who pervades everything conscious and unconscious universally. He is poetically depicted as a being with thousand heads, eyes and legs (सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात्), enveloping the earth from all sides (स भूमिं विश्वतो वृत्वात्यतिष्ठद्दशाङुलम्) and transcending it. He is the Life, the Consciousness, by which everything functions. 

All manifestation, in past present and future, is held to be the Purusha alone(पुरुष एवेदं सर्वं यद्भूतं यच्च भव्यम्). The Total-Universe is the Single Body of the One Self, He alone expresses through all (एतावानस्य महिमातो ज्यायाँश्च पूरुषः). 

Creation is described to have started with the origination Virat or the cosmic body from the Purusha. In Virat, omnipresent intelligence manifests itself which causes the appearance of diversity.

(तस्माद्विराळजायत विराजो अधि पूरुषःस जातो अत्यरिच्यत पश्चाद्भूमिमथो पुरः)

Controversies surrounding Purusha Suktam

In one verse of Rigveda, Varna is portrayed as a result of human beings created from different parts of the body of the divinity Purusha. This Purusha Sukta verse is controversial and is believed by many scholars, such as Max Müller, to be a corruption and medieval or modern era insertion into Veda,[14][15] because unlike all other major concepts in the Vedas including those of Purusha,[16] the four varnas are never mentioned anywhere else in any of the Vedas, and because this verse is missing in some manuscript prints found in different parts of India.

That remarkable hymn (the Purusha Sukta) is in language, metre, and style, very different from the rest of the prayers with which it is associated. It has a decidedly more modern tone, and must have been composed after the Sanskrit language had been refined.

— Henry Thomas Colebrooke, [17]

There can be little doubt, for instance, that the 90th hymn of the 10th book (Purusha Sukta) is modern both in its character and in its diction. (...) It mentions the three seasons in the order of the Vasanta, spring; Grishma, summer; and Sarad, autumn; it contains the only passage in the Rigveda where the four castes are enumerated. The evidence of language for the modern date of this composition is equally strong. Grishma, for instance, the name for the hot season, does not occur in any other hymn of the Rigveda; and Vasanta also does not belong to the earliest vocabulary of the Vedic poets.

— Max Müller, [18]

'The Purusha Sukta is a later interpolation in the Rig Veda. ('...) Verses in the form of questions about the division of Purusha and the origins of the Varnas are a fraudulent emendation of the original.'

— Babasaheb Ambedkar, [19]

An example of alternate theory is Nasadiya Sukta, the last book of the Vedas, which suggests a great heat created universe from void.

---- Klaus K. Klostermair (2007), A survey of Hinduism, 3rd Edition, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-7081-7, pp 88

References

1. Purusha Encyclopedia Britannica (2013)
2. Angelika Malinar, Hindu Cosmologies, in Jessica Frazier (Editor) - A Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies, ISBN 978-0-8264-9966-0, pp 67
3. Karl Potter, Presuppositions of India’s Philosophies, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0779-0, pp 105-109
4. Klaus K. Klostermair (2007), A survey of Hinduism, 3rd Edition, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-7081-7, pp 87
5. Encyclopædia Britannica. Edition: 11 V. 19 - 1911 page 143
6. Patrice Lajoye, "Puruṣa", Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée / New Comparative Mythologie, 1, 2013: http://nouvellemythologiecomparee.hautetfort.com/archive/2013/02/03/patrice-lajoye-purusha.html
7. Theos Bernard (1947), The Hindu Philosophy, The Philosophical Library, New York, pp 69-72
8. Klaus K. Klostermair (2007), A survey of Hinduism, 3rd Edition, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-7081-7, pp 167-169
9. Klaus K. Klostermair (2007), A survey of Hinduism, 3rd Edition, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-7081-7, pp 170-171
10. Jessica Frazier, A Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies, ISBN 978-0-8264-9966-0, pp 24-25, 78
11. Angelika Malinar, Hindu Cosmologies, in Jessica Frazier (Editor) - A Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies, ISBN 978-0-8264-9966-0, pp 78-79
12. Swami Madhavananda. Minor Upanishads. Advaita Ashrama. p. 11.
13. Angelika Malinar, Hindu Cosmologies, in Jessica Frazier (Editor) - A Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies, ISBN 978-0-8264-9966-0, pp 80
14. David Keane (2007), Caste-based Discrimination in International Human Rights Law, ISBN 978-0754671725, pp 26-27
15. Raghwan (2009), Discovering the Rigveda A Bracing text for our Times, ISBN 978-8178357782, pp 77-88
16. Rigveda 10/81 & Yajurveda 17/19/20, 25
17. Colebrooke, Miscallaneous Essays Volume 1, WH Allen & Co, London, see footnote at page 309
18. Müller (1859), A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, Williams & Norgate, London, pp 570-571
19. N. Jabbar (2011), Historiography and Writing Postcolonial India, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415672269, pp 149-150