Prakti

all knowable things are the products of prakṛti. All knowledge thus requires the presence of the overseer, puruṣa, and of something seen, an object in prakṛti.

This passage establishes the Sāṃkhya-Yoga thesis that Prakrti is the totality of objectifiable reality, and that every act of knowing presupposes an observer distinct from it, with the ego’s false conflation of seer and seen constituting the primary error.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009thesis

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the Spirit has based all its workings upon two twin aspects of its being, Soul and Nature, Purusha and Prakriti. We have to t

Aurobindo recasts Prakrti not as inert matter opposed to spirit but as one of two co-equal and mutually necessary aspects of a single divine reality, shifting the dualism toward an integral evolutionary framework.

Aurobindo, Sri, The Synthesis of Yoga, 1948thesis

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Pratiprasava Return to the original state; when the yogī’s mind has fulfilled its purpose (nirbīja-samādhi), it dissolves back into prakṛti.

This glossary entry defines the technical terminus pratiprasava as the mind’s final reabsorption into Prakrti upon the attainment of seedless samādhi, marking the teleological endpoint of Yoga practice.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009thesis

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prakṛti (primordial matter) [I.45]; prakṛtyāpūrāt IV.2; prakṛtīnāṃ varaṇa-bhedas IV.3

The sūtra index maps Prakrti’s explicit appearances across Patañjali’s text, documenting its function as primordial matter in relation to the unfolding of manifest forms and the lifting of their veils.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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Kṣetra-jña The knower of the field (prakṛti); another term for the ātman.

The glossary identifies kṣetra-jña as the knowing subject over against the ‘field’ that is Prakrti, cross-referencing the term with ātman and reinforcing the seer/seen polarity central to Yoga metaphysics.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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prakṛti 6–7, 99

The index of the Vijñāna Bhairava confirms Prakrti’s presence within the Trika Śaiva context, indicating its conceptual range extends beyond Sāṃkhya-Yoga into non-dualist tantric frameworks.

Singh, Jaideva, Vijnana Bhairava: The Manual for Self-Realization, 1979supporting

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the mind, along with all the beneficial saṃskāras that were produced during sabīja-samādhi, dissolves into its primary matrix, the undifferentiated

Though not naming Prakrti explicitly in this excerpt, the passage describes the mind’s dissolution into its ‘primary matrix’ — a functional description of the pratiprasava return to undifferentiated Prakrti at the culmination of yogic practice.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009aside

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