Purusha


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Pu·ru·sha

 (po͞o′rə-shə)
n. Hinduism
The primeval man, considered to be the soul of the universe, which was created out of his body.

[Sanskrit Puruṣaḥ, from puruṣaḥ, man.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
A Brahmin could not accept the idea that his superiority that was based on his caste being created from the mouth of the first principle Purusha, the place from where the words originate, was undermined.
Gajanana, Mahaganapati, Vighnaharta, Shivapriya, Purana Purusha,Vishnupriyaya, Samasta Devata Murtaye are few of them.
Sankhya teaches that everything that exists is made up of Purusha, the substance or soul, and the Prakrti, or matter, energy, or creative force.
'Removable head', 'Purusha', 'The Moon plant', 'Task-giver lives in the sky', 'The primeval couple of siblings', 'Extra suns and moons annihilated', 'Several suns burn the earth', 'One creates the bodyanother the soul', 'Talking trees', 'The Sun and the Moon are females'.
Purusha (Consciousness) and prakruti are the underlying ground or principle which makes possible all movement and becoming.
Left to himself, he would like students to be taught about Purusha, the cosmic man whose sacrifice by the gods created all life.
Pivoting on the concept of yoga, she discusses Arjuna's sorrow, knowledge (and philosophy), action, renunciation of action through knowledge, renunciation, meditation, knowledge and judgment, the imperishable Brahman, sovereign science and sovereign secret, divine manifestations, vision of the cosmic form, devotion, difference between the field and the field-knower, the division of three gunas, the supreme Purusha, the division between the divine and the demonic, the threefold path, and liberation and renunciation.
According to the Vedas, a social order emerged at creation from the body of Purusha, or primitive man: Brahmins from his head; Ksyatriyas from his arms; Vaisyas from his thighs; and Shudras from his feet.
One central claim referring to this eminent text is that of Vedantism: the eternal presence of the absolute (Purusha) that lies behind and beyond all phenomena.
The science of Ayurveda that deals with the principles and practices of healthy and happy living proclaims Prakriti (Nature) and Purusha (Humankind) to be the basic elements in the creation of the world.
The much cited PurushSukta, (9) in the Rig Veda, which shows one of the earliest classification, explains how the four orders in society originated from the self-sacrifice of Purusha, the primeval being, who destroyed himself so that an appropriate social order could emerge.