Compare Personas

Patanjali

Time in the Yoga Sutras follows the Indian cosmological framework: infinite, cyclical (kalpas, yugas), with the three gunas in perpetual transformation. Purusha, however, is beyond time entirely. "Krama-anyatvam parinamah-anyatve hetuh — The succession of changes is the cause of the difference in transformations." (Yoga Sutra III.15; IV.33) Time freedom is "Both": prakriti unfolds deterministically according to the gunas, but purusha is free, and the yogin achieves kaivalya by exercising that freedom.

Patanjali

Space is the arena of prakriti's transformations — substantival, infinite (there are innumerable worlds in Indian cosmology), three-dimensional in the ordinary sense. Purusha is non-spatial. "By performing samyama on the relation between body and space … the yogin achieves lightness." (Yoga Sutra III.42, paraphrase)

Patanjali

Prakriti is the eternal, uncreated material principle composed of the three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas). It is conserved — matter-energy is never created or destroyed, only transformed. "Prakriti is the eternal material cause … its transformations produce the entire manifest world." (Samkhya Karika 9, which Patanjali presupposes)

Patanjali

The observer is purusha — pure witnessing consciousness. In the unenlightened state, purusha misidentifies with chitta (mind-matter), producing suffering. Through the eight limbs of yoga, the observer disentangles itself and realises its true nature as free, omniscient, and beyond prakriti. Active agency in practice; passive witness-consciousness at the metaphysical level. Ishvara — a special, personal purusha — offers grace. "Drashtuh svarupe avasthanam — Then the seer abides in its own nature." (Yoga Sutra I.3)

Patanjali

Prana (vital energy) is a manifestation of prakriti — substantival, conserved, and reversible (through pranayama and tapas the yogin can redirect energy upward). "Pranayama is regulation of the movement of inhalation and exhalation." (Yoga Sutra II.49) The cosmic energy of the gunas is conserved across the cycles of creation and dissolution.

Patanjali

The samskaras (latent impressions) and vasanas (habitual tendencies) stored in chitta constitute personal information — and they are conserved across lifetimes until burned up by yoga. Cosmic information is conserved in the eternal purusha-prakriti structure. "Samskaras are the accumulated impressions of past actions … they determine future births." (Yoga Sutra II.12–13, paraphrase) Liberation (kaivalya) is the exhaustion of personal karmic information, not its destruction but its resolution.