In our Samkhya studies class yesterday, we started to dive more into the question of - Who am I? Although we started the class agreeing that we were consciousness, we ended the class stating that we are Purusha and Prakriti. These words don’t mean anything unless you are in the process of learning the yogic lifestyle and reading the Yoga Sutras. However, our assignment from the beginning has been to ponder the question of who we are.
On its face, prakriti is where our three gunas live - rajas, tamas and sattva. These three gunas are present in us at all times. The Rajastic part governs anything that is moving, changing or acting. Our Tamas resists and is the opposite to action. Sattva is where harmony and balance lives. None of these can be completely eliminated and, in fact, you need all of them. For example, sleep is part of the Tamas guna and we can all agree that we need sleep.
Purusha is everything that Prakriti is not. Purusha is permanent and is where our intelligence lives. You could even say that Purusha is our intelligence. It was explained in class that our Prakriti 1 & 2 are the hardware and software and the purusha is the charge or power that keeps them running. Without all these terms, the question of who I am still exists.
I can say that my name is Jeremy and that I am 39 years old, but is that who I am? I am my mother and father’s son and I have a brother and a sister. That also doesn’t make up who I am. I am an artist and yoga teacher, but these are things that I do and is not who I am. I am a student of yoga and life that loves to help people. These, again, are things that I do not who I am.
With all this thought about who i am, I have come to realize that it doesn’t matter who i am. I am a person in this world. I am honest, caring and compassionate. However, none of this matters. When I die all that I will leave behind is dust and a very average digital footprint. So, when the next person asks me, “Who are you?” I am going to simply say, “I am Purusha and Prakriti” and walk away.