Purusha (Sanskrit: पुरुष, [pʊɾʊʂᵊ], IAST: Puruṣa) is a complex concept[1] whose meaning evolved in Vedic and Upanishadic times.
Depending on source and historical timeline, it means the cosmic being or self, awareness, and universal principle.
In the Upanishads, the Purusha concept refers to the abstract essence of the Self, Spirit and the Universal Principle that is eternal, indestructible, without form, and all-pervasive.
It is Purusha in the form of nature’s laws and principles that operate in the background to regulate, guide, and direct change, evolution, cause, and effect.
(...) It mentions the three seasons in the order of the Vasanta, spring; Grishma, summer; and Sarad, autumn; it contains the only passage in the Rigveda where the four castes are enumerated.
Grishma, for instance, the name for the hot season, does not occur in any other hymn of the Rigveda; and Vasanta also does not belong to the earliest vocabulary of the Vedic poets.
The abstract idea of Purusha is extensively discussed in various Upanishads, and referred interchangeably as Paramatman and Brahman (not to be confused with Brahmin).
Instead, the concept flowered into a more complex abstraction:[16] Splendid and without a bodily form is this Purusha, without and within, unborn, without life breath and without mind, higher than the supreme element.
In the Upanishads, the Purusha concept refers to the abstract essence of the Self, Spirit and the Universal Principle that is eternal, indestructible, without form and is all pervasive.
The Universe is envisioned in these ancient Sanskrit texts as a combination of the perceivable material reality and non-perceivable, non-material laws and principles of nature.
Purusha is the universal principle that is unchanging, uncaused but is present everywhere and the reason why Prakrti changes, transforms and transcends all of the time and which is why there is cause and effect.
[8] Rishi Angiras of the Atma Upanishad belonging to the Atharvaveda explains that Purusha, the dweller in the body, is three-fold: the Bahyatman (the Outer-Atman) which is born and dies; the Antaratman (the Inner-Atman) which comprehends the whole range of material phenomena, gross and subtle, with which the Jiva concerns himself, and the Paramatman which is all-pervading, unthinkable, indescribable, is without action and has no Samskaras.
[3][19] The universe is envisioned as a combination of perceivable material reality and non-perceivable, non-material laws and principles of nature.
[23] According to Indologist W. Norman Brown, "The verses of Purusha Sukta are definitely a reference to Vishnu, who, through his three steps, is all-pervading (i.e. he spreads in all directions)".