Tripuṭi

Tripuṭi · tri-puṭi, “the triad”

Grammar: feminine noun; a compound of tri (three) and puṭa (fold, layer): “the threefold”, the triad.

Meaning: the triad of knower (jñātā), knowing (jñāna) and the known (jñeya), present in every act of knowing.

In the scriptures: Vasishṭha teaches King Janaka the discernment of kshetra (the field, the body) and kshetrajña (the knower of the field). The kshetrajña is the jñātā, the knower, and from the state of this knower the tripuṭi arises: knower, knowing and the known. Discerning more finely, the avyakta tattva that is the kshetrajña seems to become manifest and becomes the knower; the pure twenty-fifth tattva is what is to be known; and knowing it is jñāna at the level of practice (vyavahāra). At the level of the highest truth (paramārtha) that pure tattva alone is jñāna: it is beyond the activity called knowing, and it is cit, whose form is knowledge. For those who reach this state there is no return of birth and death (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 243).

Vasishṭha goes on: the akshara tattva, entering the body through māyā, takes on the sense of “I” and becomes doer, enjoyer, and at last a seeker of moksha and a knower; then the akshara becomes the known. When this knower is freed (mukta), he is neither knower, nor known, nor knowing, but the jñāna-tattva of the form of cit (cidrūpī), beyond them all (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 244).

Related terms: Kshetrajña · Jñāna · Akshara · Cit

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 243–244