Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada
Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya
Bg 7.4
bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ
khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me
bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
Word for word:
bhūmiḥ — earth; āpaḥ — water; analaḥ — fire; vāyuḥ — air; kham — ether; manaḥ — mind; buddhiḥ — intelligence; eva — certainly; ca — and; ahaṅkāraḥ — false ego; iti — thus; iyam — all these; me — My; bhinnā — separated; prakṛtiḥ — energies; aṣṭadhā — eightfold.
Translation:
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.
So bhūmir āpo ‘nalo vāyuḥ, so here Sri Krishna is describing several elements, Bhumi is earth, apo is water, anala is fire, Vayur is air.
khaḿ mano buddhir eva ca, ether, mind, intelligence and ego these are aṣṭadhā, aṣṭadhā is eight, bhinnā prakṛtir, which are my separated energies, so what does it mean? separated energies? Srila Prabhupada would give simple example for separated energies, it is he says that milk come from cow, so milk is the energy of the cow but it is not that wherever milk is present cow has to be present, so milk is separate from the cow, so Srila Prabhupada says that I speak and then my speech is put in the recording and the recording is available for people to hear, so is the recording same as Srila Prabhupada or different from Srila Prabhupada, it is Srila Prabhupada’s voice, so in that sense it is the energy of Srila Prabhupada but Srila Prabhupada may not be present at a particular place but the recording may be present, so in that sense it is separated energy, and he has also given example how a separated energy is having a different nature, now it is one of the perplexity in the Vedanta, and it is generally there in all religions, anyone who has thought about God might have thought that God is good but this world is filled with evil, so why have this world filled with evil when it comes from God? e.g can be given of Jail. Beautiful hair is removed from a beautiful women is not attractive and no one may like it if found in food. So once Srila Prabhupada was asked this question that why God is good but this world is full of evils? Sometime Srila Prabhupada answers had jolted people. The person asked this question was a beautiful lady, so Srila Prabhupada asked that why you are beautiful but your stool is ugly. So she was not having any answer to that. Then Srila Prabhupada said because it is your separated energy. So the idea is one which is separated may come from the source but it may not have qualities from the source. So here bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā, Srila Prabhupada has given a special insight about bhinna, none of the previous acharyas has talked about bhinna in that sense, these are the eight separated division, bhinna can be applied to prakriti or it can be applied to astadha, so it can be separated energies or eight separated categories of the Prakriti aṣṭadhā, whichever it is. So Srila Prabhupada applies as these are eight separated energies of Sri Krishna, and now Srila Prabhupada goes to quite a philosophical section over here. He says how are these separated energies?
He quotes:
The science of God analyses 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 Sātvata–tantra:
dvitīyaḿ tv aṇḍa–saḿsthitam
“For material creation, Lord Kṛṣṇa‘s plenary expansion assumes three Viṣṇus. The first one, Mahā–Viṣṇu, creates the total material energy, known as the 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. He is present even within the atoms. Anyone who knows these three Viṣṇus can be liberated from material entanglement.”
So viṣṇos tu trīṇi rūpāṇi, there are three forms of Lord Vishnu it says, puruṣākhyāny atho viduḥ, know that there are three forms what are they? ekaḿ tu mahataḥ sraṣṭṛ, one is the Maha Tattva, dvitīyaḿ tv aṇḍa–saḿsthitam, second is that which is situated in the Anda i.e. this Brahmand, so the first refers to Maha Vishnu, so from his bodily pours the Maha Tattva come out, dvitīyaḿ tv aṇḍa–saḿsthitam, second refers to Garbhodakaśāyī Vishnu Who enters into the Brahmanda and from his naval the lotus sprouts on which Brahma Ji is born. tṛtīyaḿ sarva–bhūta–sthaḿ, sarva–bhūta–sthaḿ refers to Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, who is present in all living beings as super soul. tāni jñātvā vimucyate, one who know all these that person attains liberation, tāni jñātvā vimucyate.
Now Srila Prabhupada explains how material world is a temporary manifestation of one of the energies of the Lord. So Lord’s glories are so great that He has many energies and one of His energy is material energy, and that material energy has a temporary manifestation that is this material world. Then he also explains how limited material science is.
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. What are these ten items, Srila Prabhupada says it is earth, water, fire, air and ether, and within which these are called five gigantic creations of the gross creation, within which five sense objects are included, manifestation of physical sound, touch, form, taste and smell, these are the jurisdiction of material science, how is that bhūmir āpo ‘nalo vāyuḥ, so Srila Prabhupada has used gigantic creation which is used in BG 13.06, MahaBhutani, Mahabhuta refers to earth, water, fire and air. So Srila Prabhupada translated that as gigantic creation or gross creation. Now modern science doesn’t talk much about mind, intelligence and ego and doesn’t talk about the soul also. It doesn’t analyse deeply enough to conceive these things, so its scope focuses largely on gross matter, and that is why its picture of reality is incomplete, so to get a complete understanding we should know gross matter plus subtle matter plus soul. When all three are understood then one’s understanding becomes complete.
Then Srila Prabhupada quotes about Sankhya, these kinds of analysis is done in Sankhya, Srila Prabhupada says those who analyze sankya, analyses material nature, he said all their analysis remains within the scope of the external energy of Lord Vishnu / or Krishna. Sankhya philosopher generally analyses this world in 24 elements, but beyond this 24 element is the higher reality which they don’t reach out to ultimately. So in that sense their analysis is incomplete.
End of transcription.
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