Prakriti

Prakriti
(from [|Sanskrit language] प्रकृति, prakṛti) means "nature" [|[1]]. It is, according to the [|Bhagavad Gita], the basic nature of intelligence by which the [|Universe] exists and functions. It is described in //[|Bhagavad Gita]// as the "primal motive force". It is the essential constituent of the universe and is at the basis of all the activity of the creation. [|[2]] It is composed of the three [|gunas] which are tendencies or modes of operation, known as [|sattva] (creation), [|rajas] (preservation), and [|tamas], (destruction)

Prakriti also means nature.[|[14]] Nature can be described as environment. [|[15]] It can also be used to denote the 'feminine' in sense of the 'male' being the [|purusha]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prak%E1%B9%9Bti

Derives its name from its function as the material cause of the first evolution of the universe. It may be said to be composed of two roots, "pra" to manifest, and "krita" to make; meaning, that which caused the universe to manifest itself. From the Glossary in the Alice A Bailey books

Some quotes from the teachings of Djwhal Khul:

The pairs of opposites, spirit and matter, purusha and prakriti are brought into close association and that union must come to be recognized by the soul, the perceiving consciousness. YSP, p 166

The synthetic work of the three Great Lords is inconceivably great. Form - Life - Intelligence, Matter - Spirit - Mind, Prakriti - Purusha - Manas, are the three lines of development, and in their synthesis comes completeness. LOM, p 167

"The empirical self is the mixture of free spirit and mechanism, of purusha and prakriti... Every ego possesses within the gross material body, which suffers dissolution at death, a subtle body, formed of the psychical apparatus, including the senses." - Radhakrishnan, S., //Indian Philosophy//, Vol. II, pages 279, 283, 285.

These major seven planes of our solar system being but the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane, we can consequently see the reason for the emphasis laid by H. P. B. 52,53 upon the fact that matter and ether are synonymous terms and that this ether is found in some form or other on all the planes, and is but a gradation of cosmic atomic matter, called when undifferentiated mulaprakriti or primordial pregenetic substance, and when differentiated by Fohat (or the energizing Life, the third Logos or Brahma) it is termed prakriti, or matter. 54 TOCF, p 118

His //function// is the manipulation of prakriti, or matter, so as to make it fit, or equal to, the demands and needs of the Spirit. TOCF, p 143 [speaking of third logos]

Two factors are universally recognized in all systems that merit the name of philosophy; they are the two factors of spirit and matter, of purusha and prakriti. TOCF, p 227

Prakriti (matter) and consciousness are - in manifestation - inseparable. TOCF, p 1108