Mūlaprakṛti
Mūlaprakṛti (devanāgarī: मूलप्रकृति) 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.
In Theosophical literature it is often defined as the essence of matter, the Pre-Cosmic Substance, which underlines all the objective aspects of Nature. 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.[1]
The "invisible robes" of the Eternal Parent are the non-differentiated substance or spiritual matter,[2] and they are on the highest, or seventh, plane of matter.[3]
Other synonyms Mme. Blavatsky uses is the Vedic Aditi[4] 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.
Notes
- ↑ 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.
Further reading
- Mūlaprakṛti at Theosopedia