Prakṛti

Prakṛti, “nature” or “what is put forth first”, is in Sāṃkhya and Yoga the single material source of everything except consciousness. It is made of three strands or qualities (guṇas): sattva, clarity; rajas, activity; and tamas, inertia. When these are in balance, nature is unmanifest; when the balance is disturbed, it unfolds into intellect, ego, mind, the senses and the elements.

The striking feature of the Sāṃkhya scheme is that mind and intellect belong to nature, not to consciousness. Thinking, feeling and willing are material processes; consciousness merely witnesses them. Nature unfolds, the Sāṃkhya texts say, for the sake of the self: to give it experience and, in the end, release.

The Vedānta schools take over much of this vocabulary while denying that nature is an independent reality. For Advaita it is māyā, appearance; for Viśiṣṭādvaita it is real, but as part of the body of Brahman.