puruxa is of course nothing but a concept. an idea pointing to a subtle aspect of the functioning of existence.

puruxa refers to the refraction of the consciousness radiating within and through a specific locobodimind as I AM. the context of its refraction being specific, limited and consistent gives rise to a sense of separateness or sense of separate self that underlies the activity of the locobodimind (asmita).

puruxa refers to the quintessential presence of awareness localised in a perceiving instrument (locomind). it underlies the (imposed sense of) self (seer, doer, grasper, owner, projector). yet it is not the essence of the self.

there are three 'self's' within patanajlis conceptualisation: ishavara, puruxa and drastr. they relate as the trinity expressed in the saying I AM THAT. they are distinct aspects of Consciousness: as subject, action and object. I refers to ixvara, AM to puruxa, THAT to drastr. within this process consciousness has three aspects. the first is pure consciousness, the source, the noumenon. the second is the bifurcating movement of consciousness into manifest duality. the third is the idenitified activity of perception occuring through a given perceptual organism. these are ishavara, puruxaand drastr: God, The Self, the self (seer or doer).

the self (drastr) is the result of identification of actions with their instruments. the Self is the result of consciousness identifying with its instrument. the essence of the S/self is that which actually is: consciousness at rest and in movement.

God is the true nature of the S/self. puruxa is the most refined misrepresentation of being as a self in distinction to others, that results necessarily and inevitably from the localisation (lococentering) of consciousness into bodiminds. drastr, the seer or doer, is the identification of an instrument of action with its actions , as if an individual center of consciousness, volition and action.