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Bhagavad Gita · 7.4 · Self-Knowledge and Enlightenment·4 of 30

भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं मनो बुद्धिरेव चअहङ्कार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा

bhūmir-āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva

cha ahankāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛitir aṣhṭadhā

Sanskrit recitation

The divine inside ordinary nature · 7.1–7.14 · Teaching

Translation

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and egoism—thus is My Nature divided eightfold.

Meaning

This eightfold Nature constitutes the inferior Nature or Apara Prakriti. The five gross elements are formed out of the Tanmatras or rootelements through the process of Pancikarana or fivefold mixing. Tanmatras are the subtle rootelements. In this verse, earth, water, etc., represent the subtle or rudimentary elements out of which the five gross elements are formed.Mind stands here for its cause Ahamkara intellect for its cause the Mahat Ahamkara for the Avyaktam or the unmanifested (MulaPrakriti) united with Avidya which is conjoined with all kinds of Vasanas or latent tendencies. As Ahamkara (Iness) is the cause for all the actions of every individual and as Ahamkara is the most vital principle in man on which all the other Tattvas or principles depend, the Avyaktam combined with the Ahamkara is itself called here Ahamkara, just as food which is mixed with poison is itself called poison.

After Swami Sivananda

The divine inside ordinary nature· 7.1–7.14

Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.

Word-by-word
me
my
cha
and
eva
certainly
iti
thus
iyam
all these
kham
space
bhinnā
divisions
manaḥ
mind
āpaḥ
water
analaḥ
fire
vāyuḥ
air
bhūmiḥ
earth
buddhiḥ
intellect
ahankāraḥ
ego
aṣhṭadhā
eightfold
prakṛitiḥ
material energy

Related verses

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