Mūlaprakṛti
Mūlaprakṛti (devanāgarī: मूलप्रकृति, also Mulaprakriti) is a Sanskrit term that can be translated as "the root of nature" or "root of Prakriti"; meaning "fundamental matter". In the Samkhya school of Hinduism it is frequently used as a synonym of pradhāna.
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.
See also
Online resources
Articles
- Mūlaprakṛti at Theosopedia
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.