The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1851 page)

)
s
tra
utterances; and for this reason the Prajñaptiv
da is sometimes held to be a proto-Mah
y
nist school.

 
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see
ARHAT
.

 
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(Skt., ‘making first’). In Sanskrit literature, primordial material nature. In mythology prak
ti is personified as a goddess of cosmic creative energy,
akti
, the female counterpart of every god. In
Ved
nta
, prak
ti is synonymous with cosmic manifestation, hence as appearance,
m
y
. In
S
khya
-yoga prak
ti plays an important role as the ultimate material reality juxtaposed with
puru
a
, the ultimate spiritual reality. Here prak
ti is the matrix of the universe, the material cause of all manifest matter and energy. As such, prak
ti is composed of three balanced
gu
as
(Skt., ‘strands’) or constituent modes which, in disequilibrium, combine to generate all other material principles (
tattvas
).