Mūla Prakṛti

Mūla Prakṛti, “the root nature”

Mūla Prakṛti means “the root nature”. In the Prakṛti Khaṇḍa (the book on Prakṛti) of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, she is the original feminine principle behind all creation. She is the eternal śakti (divine power) who stands on the left side of Śrī Kṛshṇa, while Kṛshṇa as the Purusha (the supreme person) stands on the right. She is called māyā-svarūpiṇī, the one whose very form is māyā, and through her the whole of creation unfolds.

She shows herself in five main forms: Durgā, Lakshmī, Sarasvatī, Sāvitrī and Rādhā. Each of these looks after a different part of the working of the universe. From these five come a great number of lesser aṃśa-devatās (devīs who are partial forms of her), and they are the divine wives of every important being in creation.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa speaks of Mūla-prakṛti, also called Pradhāna, as the root of the tattvas. She has the three guṇas, sattva, rajas and tamas; when Kāla stirs the balance of her guṇas, the mahat-tattva appears, and from it the ahaṅkāra and the rest of creation; and at the end all the tattvas return into her, and she into Parabrahma, who is beyond time. Her source is the belly of the Virāṭ Purusha, and Kardama Maharshi praises pradhāna and all the tattvas as forms of Bhagavān Kapila.

Meaning of the Name and Her Nature

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa begins the Prakṛti Khaṇḍa by explaining the word Prakṛti syllable by syllable. Pra stands for sattva (purity and light), kṛ stands for rajas (activity and passion), and ti stands for tamas (heaviness and darkness). These three are the guṇas, the three qualities of nature. So Prakṛti is the one in whom all three guṇas are naturally present, and from whose interplay they come out into the created world. A second meaning is also given: pra means prakṛshṭa (excellent, highest) and kṛti means sṛshṭi (creation). So Prakṛti is the one responsible for the highest and finest order of creation.

Mūla Prakṛti is not a lifeless principle. She is the eternal, conscious śakti who can never be separated from Śrī Kṛshṇa. In the beginning, the Purusha (Śrī Kṛshṇa) is on the right side and Prakṛti on the left, and together they form one undivided, self-shining reality. She is māyā-svarūpiṇī: her essential form is māyā, the creative power that makes the one reality appear as many.

The Five Main Forms

Mūla Prakṛti appears in five main forms. Each one comes from a different aspect of Kṛshṇa‘s being and has its own role in the universe.

1. Durgā

Durgā is the first and foremost form of Mūla Prakṛti. She is the śakti of Śiva and the power that destroys everything hostile to dharma (the right order of life). She presides over creation, preservation and dissolution in their most powerful aspects. In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, all the fierce forms of the Devī, such as Kālikā, Mahāmāyā and others, are understood as flowing from Durgā.

2. Lakshmī

Lakshmī is the second form of Mūla Prakṛti. She is the eternal śakti of Śrī Vishṇu and the source of all wealth, good fortune and royal power in the universe. A part (aṃśa) of Lakshmī comes down into the human world as Tulasī, the holy basil used in pūjā. Her presence fills every form of śrī (beauty and prosperity) and sampatti (riches) in creation.

3. Sarasvatī

Sarasvatī is the third form of Mūla Prakṛti. She is the śakti of Brahmā and the devī of vāk (speech), vidyā (learning) and all knowledge. The Sarasvatī who comes forth from Kṛshṇa‘s lips at the start of creation, and who then becomes Brahmā’s wife, is an expression of this third form.

4. Sāvitrī

Sāvitrī is the fourth form of Mūla Prakṛti. She is vedamātā, the mother of all the Vedas, the vedāṅgas (the subjects that support the Vedas), the chandas (Vedic metres), the mantras of sandhyāvandana (the daily twilight prārthanā) and the tantras. Brahmatejas, the spiritual radiance of a brāhmaṇa, shines out from her. She is as pure as crystal and dear to Brahmā, and all the holy tīrthas (places of pilgrimage) long for her darśana (sight). She grants moksha (liberation) to those who meditate on her. Sāvitrī Devī, who came from Kṛshṇa‘s tongue and became Brahmā’s lawful wife, embodies this fourth form.

5. Rādhā

Rādhā is the fifth and highest form, the greatest of all the forms of Prakṛti and the closest to Śrī Kṛshṇa himself. She is the ādi-śakti (the first power) who presides over the eternal realm of Goloka. Her love for Kṛshṇa is the model of all loving union in bhakti (devotion). In the teaching of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, all the other forms of Mūla Prakṛti come from Rādhā or serve under her.

The Principal Partial Forms (Prādhāna Aṃśas)

Besides the five main forms, Mūla Prakṛti shows herself in a group of prādhāna aṃśas (principal partial forms). Each has a special role:

  • Gaṅgā: the holy river devī, who first flowed as liquid light from Rādhā and Kṛshṇa, and who purifies every being who touches her
  • Tulasī: born as a part of Lakshmī, the holy plant who is dearest to Vishṇu and without whom pūjā is incomplete
  • Manasā: the devī of serpents, born from Śiva‘s mind, who protects from snake poison
  • Devasenā / Shashṭhī: the protector of children, the devī of the sixth day, honoured after a birth
  • Maṅgalacaṇḍikā: the auspicious fierce form who destroys harmful forces
  • Kālikā: the dark form of the Devī who stands beyond time and slays those who cannot be controlled
  • Vasundharā / Bhūdevī: the devī of the earth, who carries all beings without tiring

Lesser Partial Forms as Divine Wives

The Prakṛti Khaṇḍa gives a long list of lesser aṃśas of Mūla Prakṛti who were born as the divine wives of the leading devas, ṛshis and other great beings. This teaching sets out a basic principle: every important male being in creation has a female partner, and she herself is a partial form of Mūla Prakṛti. Among those named are:

  • The wives of the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras and the twelve Ādityas
  • Rohiṇī, Revatī and the 27 nakshatra-devatās (devīs of the lunar mansions), who are the wives of the Moon
  • Svāhā, who receives offerings on behalf of Agni
  • Dakshiṇā, the śakti behind every ritual act
  • Svadhā, who receives the pitṛ-tarpaṇa (water offerings to the ancestors) on their behalf
  • The wives of Dharma, the wives of Kaśyapa (including Aditi), and the wives of the other Prajāpatis (the fathers of creation)
  • The many divine mothers and foster-mothers found in the stories of the itihāsas and Purāṇas

This list is more than a family tree. It shows the Brahma Vaivarta view that the feminine principle is present at every level of creation. No important being acts without a śakti, and every such śakti is rooted in Mūla Prakṛti.

The Teaching on Honouring Women

The Prakṛti Khaṇḍa ends its basic teaching on Mūla Prakṛti with an important instruction. All women in the world are aṃśas of Mūla Prakṛti, so to dishonour any woman is to dishonour the Devī herself. All good fortune in home life, in creation and in the universe flows through the feminine principle. A man who honours women, protects them and serves them with devotion receives the grace of Mūla Prakṛti herself. A man who disrespects them drives her grace away and sees all his good qualities decline.

Why This Teaching Matters

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa‘s teaching on Mūla Prakṛti takes the ideas of Sāṃkhya (an ancient school that analyses nature and spirit) and fills them with devotion to a personal Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. In classical Sāṃkhya, Prakṛti is unconscious and the Purusha is only a silent witness. In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti is fully conscious, full of devotion, and personally bound to the supreme Purusha, Śrī Kṛshṇa. She is not a faceless source of matter but a living śakti who loves Kṛshṇa, serves him and is never apart from him. In this view, creation comes from the līlā (divine play) of their relationship, not from the mechanical mixing of lifeless substance.

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

Her source and her nature

Brahmā, telling Nārada of the Virāṭ Purusha, says that the maharshis call his belly the source of Mūlaprakṛti, of the rasa-dhātu, the essence of food, and of the oceans; his heart is the source of the subtle bodies of all beings.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 6

In the teaching that Prahlāda gave the daitya boys, which Nārada Maharshi tells Yudhishṭhira, Prahlāda gives the count of the Sāṅkhya teachers: there are eight prakṛtis, the principles at the root of the world: Mūla-prakṛti, the Mahat-tattva, Ahaṅkāra and the five subtle elements, pṛthivī, water, fire, vāyu and ākāśa. Mūla-prakṛti has the three guṇas, sattva, rajas and tamas. From them come the sixteen vikāras: the five karmendriyas, the five jñānendriyas, the antaḥkaraṇa and the five gross elements; and the Purusha, whose nature is consciousness, pervades all this. When Bhagavān Narasiṃha had slain Hiraṇyakaśipu, the yakshas praised him as the one who gives existence and light to the twenty-four tattvas, and named Mūla-prakṛti first among them, then the Mahat-tattva and the collective ahaṅkāra.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapters 7–8

Pradhāna stirred by Kāla

When Bhagavān Kapila was born in his house, Kardama Maharshi praised him: “You are beyond prakṛti. Pradhāna, the material cause of the world; the Purusha who presides over it; the mahat-tattva, its first effect; kāla, which stirs pradhāna; the three ahaṅkāras, sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa; and the lokapālas, Indra and the rest: all are your forms. You, the all-knowing, are the witness who sees the transformations of prakṛti.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 24

Teaching Uddhava, Śrī Kṛshṇa says: “When Kāla caused agitation in the balanced state of the guṇas of Pradhāna, the mahat-tattva appeared. From its transformation the cosmic ahaṅkāra appeared, the cause of the difference that comes from delusion, such as identifying with the body. This ahaṅkāra has three portions: sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa.” And when Sūta sums up the whole Purāṇa, he names among the subjects of the second Skandha the creation of the tattvas, beginning with mahat, from pradhāna.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 22; Skandha 12, Chapter 12

Dissolution into Mūla-prakṛti

Nārada Maharshi teaches Yudhishṭhira how the vānaprastha, at the end, should meditate on each power of the body dissolving into its source. The elements return into their causes in order: the earth into the waters, the waters into fire, fire into vāyu, vāyu into ākāśa, ākāśa into the jīva, who in truth is without change; the jīva into the mahat-tattva, Hiraṇyagarbha; mahat into mūla-prakṛti; and mūla-prakṛti into Parabrahma, who is beyond time. When all that is not the ātmā has been set aside in this way, what remains is the ātmā alone, pure consciousness.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 12

Sources

  • Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1–2
  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 6; Skandha 3, Chapter 24; Skandha 7, Chapters 7–8, 12; Skandha 11, Chapter 22; Skandha 12, Chapter 12