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भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च। अहङ्कार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा।।7.4।।

bhūmir-āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva cha ahankāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛitir aṣhṭadhā

Sanskrit Chant Recitation
Chapter 7, Verse 4
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Scripture Translation Room

Sanskrit to English Translation

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

A Reading - Rantideb

Why: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and ego, these eight comprise Krishna's divided material nature, giving a structured list of the components making up the manifest world.

In life: breaking something overwhelming into distinct named components, rather than treating it as one undifferentiated blur, makes it much easier to actually work with.

Teaching: when facing something that feels too complex to grasp, try breaking it into its actual named components, the way this verse does, rather than treating it as one indivisible mystery.

bhūmiḥearth
āpaḥwater
analaḥfire
vāyuḥair
khamspace
manaḥmind
buddhiḥintellect
evacertainly
chaand
ahankāraḥego
itithus
iyamall these
memy
bhinnādivisions
prakṛitiḥmaterial energy
aṣhṭadhāeightfold

Deep Classical Commentary (Bhashya)

Author:
7.4 भूमिः earth? आपः water? अनलः fire? वायुः air? खम् ether? मनः mind? बुद्धिः intellect? एव even? च and? अहङ्कारः egoism? इति thus? इयम् this? मे My? भिन्ना divided? प्रकृतिः Nature? अष्टधा eightfold.Commentary 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.