The absolute soul is unmanifested, knower of creation, eternal, universal and indestructible. The manifested creation (Purusha) is, of course, otherwise.
Another way of distinguishing manifested things from the unmanifested ones is that the former can be perceived by sense faculties. The latter is transcendental in nature and is not perceptible with the senses. It can only be inferred (rather than perceived).
[Ashta bhuta prakriti (eight sources of creation) and Shodash vikara (sixteen elements)] The five subtle elements (viz. shabdatanmantra, sparshatanmantra, rupatanmantra, rasatanmatra and gandhatanmatra), buddhi (intellect), avyakta (prakriti or nature) and ahamkara (ego) are the eight sources of creation.
As explained by wise ones, all this taken together, except the unmanifested one (avyakta), is known as kshetra i.e. corpus (body). The unmanifested (soul) one is known as kshetragna (knower of the corpus) which adjoins the body.