The Hindu Temple v1.c6.6

v1.c6.6

In the Puruṣa, Supernal man, the Supreme Principle is beheld. Beyond form and non-contingent, it is beyond description. It is known by intellectual intuition as residing in man, the microcosm, and in the universe, the macrocosm. Either is its place of manifestation. Man and Universe are equivalent in this their indwelling centre. Of this equivalence the Puruṣa is an image. In the Puruṣa, the relation of the Supreme Principle (Brahman) and of manifestation is seen as coterminous. The Supreme Principle in this aspect is called Puruṣa because it reposes or dwells in Integral or Supernal man as if in a city (Puruṣaḥ = puri-śayaḥ or puri-ṣādaḥ; Yāska, ‘Nirukta’, I. 13; II. 3). The city is drawn as a yantra, a device in which is bound and situated the Supreme Principle. It is a plan of its manifestation and as such it is also the body of the Puruṣa, itself without substance. It is the site indwelt, and pervaded by the Puruṣa. Any place where this body lies down, where this plan is laid out by those who know it, exemplifies the presence of the Puruṣa and is its ‘bhūmi’, the ground on which it rests.¹ By its impress that piece of land, freed of all associations acts as primordial, undifferentiated substance (Prakṛti).