Bg. 7.4

भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च ।
अहंकार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा ॥४॥

bhūmir āpo ‘nalo vāyuḥ
khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me
bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā

bhūmiḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigbhumih

earth; land; mother earth; surface of the earth; the earth; the land.—earth; āpaḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigapah

in the water; rain; the water; water.—water; analaḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_biganalaḥ

a fire; fire; flames; the fire.—fire; vāyuḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigvāyuḥ

air; air of life; breeze; the air; the air of life; the breeze; the demigod of air; the god of the winds; the wind; the wind-god; the winds; Vāyu, the director of the air; wind.—air; khamplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigkham

all-pervading like the sky; apertures; ether; ethereal; in the sky; in the vast sky; outer space; the sky.—ether; manaḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigmanah

and of the mind; and the mind; attention; by meditation; by mind; by the acts of the mind; by the mind; complete attention; heart; her mind; his mind; how the mind is working; in terms of the mind; in the mind; like the mind; mind; minds, hearts; my mind; of the mind; of the minds; of the strength of enthusiasm; that mind; the mind (full of material desires for eating, sleeping, mating and defending); the mind; the mind in such a situation; the minds; the subject matter of thought for the mind; their minds; to the mind; with mind; with the mind.—mind; buddhiḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigbuddhih

intelligence.—intelligence; evaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigeva

alone; also; also the word eva; although; as; as it is; as it were; as much as; as they are; at all; at that time; certainly; certainly,; certainty; completely; definitely; even; ever; exactly; exactly like; factually; Himself; immediately; in fact; in this way; indeed; it is all like that; just; just so; like; like that; like this; of course; on the very; only; quite; simply; so; surely; the word eva; they are; thus; truly; undoubtedly; very; without doubt.—certainly; caplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigca

ca; all these; also; also other bodily forms; also that I have not been able to ask; and (the five gross material elements and the ten acting and knowledge-gathering senses); and; and also; and Devahūti; and for all; and the paraphernalia; as also; as much as; as well; as well as; but; certainly; either; however; indeed; only; or; over and above; respectively; the word ca; this word ca; thus; totally; unlimitedly; verily.—and; ahaṅkāraḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigahaṅkāraḥ

ego; false ego; the material ego.—false ego; itiplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigiti

thus; all these; also; and so on; as; as such; considering all these things; considering in that way; here; in this way (after giving everything to the brāhmaṇas); in this way; it is thus; known by these names; like that; like this; so it is; such; taking it as; that; therefore; they; this; thus (Hariścandra said); thus (saying out of contempt); thus (thinking in the above-mentioned way); thus (thinking); thus; thus accepted; thus accepting the words of Lord Brahmā; thus deciding; thus stated; thus thinking; thus vituperating.—thus; iyamplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigiyam

all these; Devakī; this (Lakṣmī); this; this earth; this female; this female child; this girl; this land of our kingdom; this material world; this one (Rādhikā); this one; this world.—all these; meplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigme

about me; by me; executed by me; for me; from Me; Me; mind; mine; my; my duty; myself; of me (Hiraṇyakaśipu); of me; of Mine; of Myself; on me; to Me; unto me; upon me; with me.—My; bhinnāplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigbhinna

broken; demonstrating different; divided; separate; separated; were shocked.—separated; prakṛtiḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigprakrtih

energies; energy; material nature; natural state; nature; the cosmic manifestation; the influence of material nature; the material elements; the material energy or material nature; the material nature; whose nature.—energies; aṣṭadhāplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigaṣṭadhā

eightfold; total eight.—total eight. ¶

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies. ¶

The science of God analyzes the constitutional position of God and His diverse energies. Material nature is called prakṛti, or the energy of the Lord in His different puruṣa incarnations (expansions) as described in the Svatvata Tantra: ¶

viṣṇos tu trīṇi rūpāṇi puruṣākhyāny atho viduḥ
ekantu mahataḥ sraṣṭṛ dvitīyaṁ tv aṇḍa-saṁsthitam
tṛtīyaṁ sarvabhūta-sthaṁ tāni jñātvā vimucyate

“For material creation, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s plenary expansion assumes three Viṣṇus. The first one, Mahā-Viṣṇu, creates the total material energy, known as mahat-tattva. The second, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, enters into all the universes to create diversities in each of them. The third, Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, is diffused as the all-pervading Supersoul in all the universes and is known as Paramātmā, who is present even within the atoms. Anyone who knows these three Viṣṇus can be liberated from material entanglement.” ¶

This material world is a temporary manifestation of one of the energies of the Lord. All the activities of the material world are directed by these three Viṣṇu expansions of Lord Kṛṣṇa. These Puruṣas are called incarnations. Generally one who does not know the science of God (Kṛṣṇa) assumes that this material world is for the enjoyment of the living entities and that the living entities are the causes (Puruṣas), controllers and enjoyers of the material energy. According to Bhagavad-gītā this atheistic conclusion is false. In the verse under discussion it is stated that Kṛṣṇa is the original cause of the material manifestation. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also confirms this. The ingredients of the material manifestation are separated energies of the Lord. Even the brahmajyoti, which is the ultimate goal of the impersonalists, is a spiritual energy manifested in the spiritual sky. There are no spiritual diversities in brahmajyoti as there are in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas, and the impersonalist accepts this brahmajyoti as the ultimate eternal goal. The Paramātmā manifestation is also a temporary all-pervasive aspect of the Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. The Paramātmā manifestation is not eternal in the spiritual world. Therefore the factual Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa. He is the complete energetic person, and He possesses different separated and internal energies. ¶

In the material energy, the principal manifestations are eight, as above mentioned. Out of these, the first five manifestations, namely earth, water, fire, air and sky, are called the five gigantic creations or the gross creations, within which the five sense objects are included. They are the manifestations of physical sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Material science comprises these ten items and nothing more. But the other three items, namely mind, intelligence and false ego, are neglected by the materialists. Philosophers who deal with mental activities are also not perfect in knowledge because they do not know the ultimate source, Kṛṣṇa. The false ego—“I am,” and “It is mine,” which constitute the basic principle of material existence—includes ten sense organs for material activities. Intelligence refers to the total material creation, called the mahat-tattva. Therefore from the eight separated energies of the Lord are manifest the twenty-four elements of the material world, which are the subject matter of sāṅkhya atheistic philosophy; they are originally offshoots from Kṛṣṇa’s energies and are separated from Him, but atheistic sāṅkhya philosophers with a poor fund of knowledge do not know Kṛṣṇa as the cause of all causes. The subject matter for discussion in the sāṅkhya philosophy is only the manifestation of the external energy of Kṛṣṇa, as it is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. ¶