Mulaprakriti
Mulaprakriti (devanāgarī: मूलप्रकृति, mūlaprakṛti) is a Sanskrit term that can be translated as "the root-substance" (or "that substance which is the root"). In Theosophical writings it is used with the meaning of fundamental or ultimate matter (substance). In the Samkhya school of Hinduism it is frequently used as a synonym of pradhāna, while in the Advaita Vedanta school it is synonymous with māyā or "illusion."
General description
In Theosophical literature it is often defined as the essence of matter, the Pre-Cosmic Substance:
Precosmic root-substance (Mulaprakriti) is that aspect of the Absolute which underlies all the objective planes of Nature. Just as pre-Cosmic Ideation is the root of all individual consciousness, so pre-Cosmic Substance is the substratum of matter in the various grades of its differentiation.[1]
It is the "Eternal Parent wrapped in her ever invisible robes" of the Stanza I.1 of Cosmogenesis:
[Question]: What aspect of space . . . is here called the Eternal Parent?
Mme. Blavatsky: Well, it is just this androgynous something; the Svabhavat of the Buddhists. It is non-differentiated, hence--an abstraction. It is the Mulaprakriti of the Vedantins. If you preoceed to make it correspond with the human priniciples it will be Buddhi, Atman corresponding to Parabrahman.[2]
The "invisible robes" of the Eternal Parent are the non-differentiated substance or spiritual matter,[3] and they are on the highest, or seventh, plane of matter.[4]
Other synonyms Mme. Blavatsky uses is the Vedic Aditi[5] or Pradhana. She often refers to Svābhāvat as a synonym, though this is probably in a general sense only, because in other occasions she talks of it as a differentiation of Mulaprakriti.
As explained by our learned Vedantin Brother—T. Subba Row—Mulaprakriti, the first universal aspect of Parabrahma, its Kosmic Veil, and whose essence, to us, is unthinkable, is to the LOGOS “as material as any object is material to us”
See also
Additional resources
Articles
- Mūlaprakṛti in Theosophy World
- Cosmic Substance in Theosophy World
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 15.
- ↑ Michael Gomes (transcriber), The Secret Doctrine Commentaries (The Hague: I.S.I.S. foundation, 2010), 3.
- ↑ Michael Gomes (transcriber), The Secret Doctrine Commentaries (The Hague: I.S.I.S. foundation, 2010), 3.
- ↑ Michael Gomes (transcriber), The Secret Doctrine Commentaries (The Hague: I.S.I.S. foundation, 2010), 6.
- ↑ Michael Gomes (transcriber), The Secret Doctrine Commentaries (The Hague: I.S.I.S. foundation, 2010), 4.