1012
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 25]
tam —that person;  tvā —unto You;  gatā —have gone;  aham —I;  śaraṇam —shelter;  śaraṇyam —worth taking shelter of;  sva-bhṛtya —for Your dependents;  saṁsāra —of material existence;  taroh —of the tree;  kuṭhāram —the axe;  jijñāsayā —with the desire to know;  aham —I;  prakṛteḥ —of matter (woman);  pūruṣasya —of spirit (man);  namāmi —I offer obeisances;  sat-dharma —of the eternal occupation;  vidām —of the knowers;  variṣṭham —unto the greatest.
TRANSLATION
Devahūti continued:  I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet because You are the only person of whom to take shelter. You are the axe which can cut the tree of material existence. I therefore offer my obeisances unto You, who are the greatest of all transcendentalists, and I inquire from You as to the relationship between man and woman and between spirit and matter.
PURPORT
Sāṅkhya  philosophy, as is well known, deals with  prakṛti  and  puruṣa .  Puruṣa  is the Supreme Personality of Godhead or anyone who imitates the Supreme Personality of Godhead as an enjoyer, and  prakṛti  means nature. In this material world, material nature is being exploited by the  puruṣas , or the living entities. The intricacies in the material world of the relationship of the  prakṛti  and  puruṣa , or the enjoyed and the enjoyer, is called  saṁsāra , or material entanglement. Devahūti wanted to cut the tree of material entanglement, and she found the suitable weapon in Kapila Muni. The tree of material existence is explained in the Fifteenth Chapter of  Bhagavad-gītā  as an  aśvattha  tree whose root is upwards and whose branches are downwards. It is recommended there that one has to cut the root of this material existential tree with the axe of detachment. What is the attachment? The attachment involves  prakṛti  and  puruṣa . The living entities are trying to lord it over material nature. Since the conditioned soul takes material nature to be the object of his enjoyment and he takes the position of the enjoyer, he is therefore called  puruṣa .
Devahūti questioned Kapila Muni, for she knew that only He could cut her attachment for this material world. The living entities, in the guises of men and women, are trying to enjoy the material energy; therefore in one sense everyone is  puruṣa  because  puruṣa  means enjoyer and  prakṛti  means enjoyed. In this material world both the so-called man and so-called woman are imitating the real  puruṣa ; the Supreme Personality of Godhead is actually the enjoyer in the transcendental sense, whereas all others are  prakṛti .