Samkhya sets forth a rigorously dualistic vision of reality, grounded in two eternal and independent principles: Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha is pure consciousness—unchanging, inactive, and merely the witness of all phenomena—while Prakriti is primordial matter or nature, dynamic and creative. Purusha is plural, with many individual centers of consciousness, whereas Prakriti is the single, underlying source of all material manifestation. These two principles never truly merge; their apparent conjunction gives rise to experience, but their natures remain distinct. The entire drama of bondage and liberation unfolds from the misapprehension of this fundamental duality.

Prakriti is described as constituted by three guṇas, or basic qualities: sattva, associated with balance and clarity; rajas, linked with activity and passion; and tamas, connected with inertia and darkness. In its primordial state, Prakriti exists in equilibrium of these guṇas, but in the presence of Purusha this balance is disturbed, and evolution begins. This evolution is not creation ex nihilo; rather, Samkhya upholds satkāryavāda, the view that the effect pre-exists in the cause, so that all manifestations are latent within Prakriti and simply become manifest. Through this process, Prakriti unfolds into a structured series of tattvas, or fundamental principles, that constitute the entire field of mental and physical experience.

The classical enumeration speaks of 25 tattvas. These include Purusha and Prakriti themselves, followed by mahat or buddhi (cosmic intelligence), ahaṃkāra (the ego-principle), and manas (the mind). From these arise the five sense organs and five organs of action, which mediate perception and activity, as well as the five subtle elements and five gross elements that form the material cosmos. All these are evolutes of Prakriti and remain within the domain of change, while Purusha stands apart as the unchanging witness. The diversity of individual lives and experiences is thus traced to the plurality of Purushas in relation to the manifold configurations of Prakriti.

Within this framework, bondage is nothing other than the mistaken identification of Purusha with the evolutes of Prakriti—body, senses, mind, and ego. Because of this confusion, the qualities of the guṇas are falsely attributed to consciousness itself, giving rise to suffering and entanglement in the cycle of experience. Liberation, termed kaivalya, is attained through discriminative knowledge (viveka-jñāna), the clear and unwavering recognition that Purusha is entirely distinct from Prakriti and its transformations. When this insight becomes firm, Prakriti is said to cease functioning for that particular Purusha, and consciousness abides in its own isolated purity. Classical Samkhya presents this entire vision without positing a creator God, holding that the interplay of Purusha and Prakriti suffices to account for the cosmos and the path beyond suffering.