hindu-cosmosfeatured in 2 works
Tattva 12 — The Bound Self (Puruṣa)
The individual is born: the universal consciousness, wrapped in five cloaks, becomes a single separate 'I.'
Once the five cloaks have done their work, what emerges is the puruṣa — the individual self, the limited 'I' that experiences the world as a separate person. This is the same puruṣa, the witnessing subject, that Sāṃkhya places near the top of its scheme; but Kashmir Shaivism sees it as only a contracted, veiled form of the universal Śiva-consciousness, not an independent ultimate. With puruṣa, the long descent reaches the ordinary individual experiencer.
How it traveled
- Kaṭha UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -500explains
- Śvetāśvatara UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -400explains
Key passages(15)
Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.15↗explains
Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 504↗applies
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
High
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2,5.18↗explains
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
Moderate
Moderate