Within the Sāṃkhya vision, liberation (kaivalya or mokṣa) rests entirely on the strict dualism between Puruṣa and Prakṛti. Puruṣa is pure, inactive consciousness, the eternal witness, while Prakṛti is primordial matter, the source of mind, body, senses, ego, and the entire field of experience. Bondage arises not because Puruṣa is actually bound, but because of ignorance (avidyā): the misidentification of this pure witnessing consciousness with the changing products of Prakṛti, including pleasure, pain, and all forms of agency. In this confusion, Puruṣa seems to act and to enjoy or suffer, though in truth all activity and modification belong solely to Prakṛti.

Liberation is described as discriminative knowledge (viveka-jñāna), a clear and unwavering discernment that “Puruṣa is utterly distinct from Prakṛti and its evolutes.” When this insight becomes firm, the false identification falls away, and Puruṣa is recognized as what it has always been: isolated, self-luminous consciousness, untouched by change or karma. The subtle intellect (buddhi), itself a product of Prakṛti, plays a crucial role here; when it becomes sufficiently clear and refined, it can accurately reflect Puruṣa and recognize that the true Self is only the seer, never the seen. This knowledge does not transform Puruṣa—since Puruṣa was never truly bound—but removes the illusion that it was ever entangled.

From the standpoint of Sāṃkhya, Prakṛti has a paradoxical function: it evolves into body, mind, and world so that experience (bhoga) and ultimately liberation (apavarga) may occur. Once discriminative knowledge arises for a particular Puruṣa, Prakṛti has fulfilled its purpose with respect to that Puruṣa and “ceases to function” for it; the guṇas no longer bind, and there is no further rebirth or involvement in the cycles of evolution and dissolution. The world, however, does not vanish; Prakṛti continues to operate for other Puruṣas still under the spell of ignorance. Liberation, therefore, is the permanent and irreversible “aloneness” of Puruṣa—its abiding in its own nature as pure witness-consciousness, forever distinct from the play of Prakṛti and free from all suffering and transmigration.