Puruṣa

Pure consciousness, the eternal witness. In Sāṃkhya and Yoga metaphysics, puruṣa is the conscious principle opposed to prakrti (matter). Puruṣa neither acts nor changes: it is pure luminosity that observes without participating. Suffering arises from the confusion between puruṣa and its reflection in matter. Kaivalya — the aim of yoga — is the definitive isolation of puruṣa from prakṛti. See kaivalya and [[drastri]].