Gita 07.04 – Sankhya when seen devotionally reveals Krishna’s glory
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.
Explanation
From this verse onward, Krishna begins to reveal the very knowledge He glorified in the opening verses of the chapter. In 7.1, He promises Arjuna: “Hear from Me this knowledge by which you will know Me completely, and your mind will become attached to Me.” The detailed explanation of that knowledge now begins here.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes in On the Way to Krishna that knowledge comes from Krishna, but knowledge does not begin with Krishna.
Krishna states in various places — such as “mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca” — that whatever knowledge anyone possesses ultimately comes from Him, the Supersoul in the heart, who provides intelligence, remembrance, and understanding.
Yet practically, our inquiry does not start with God. We do not suddenly wake up one day questioning, “Who is the Supreme?” Although sometimes a crisis or awakening may prompt such thoughts, ordinarily we begin by trying to understand the world around us — our world, the immediate circle in which we live, interact, influence others, and are influenced by them. We observe nature, people, events, pleasures, and difficulties, all of which are manifestations of matter.
Krishna, therefore, connects the world we already experience with Himself by declaring in this verse that everything around us is His prakṛti, His energy.
bhūmi — earth
āpaḥ — water
analaḥ — fire
vāyuḥ — air
kham — ether
manaḥ — mind
buddhiḥ — intelligence
ahaṅkāraḥ — false ego
All these, Krishna says — “itiyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā” — are My separated energies, divided into eight categories.
Thus, Krishna begins by helping us understand the world we already perceive and then gradually guiding us to understand the One who animates and sustains it.
Sometimes this verse is translated, as Śrīla Prabhupāda does, as “These are My eight separated energies.” Other commentators render it as “These are the eight divisions within My energy,” meaning that the material energy itself contains eight distinct components. In either case, the term bhinnā (“separated”) can be understood in relation to me (“My”), indicating that although everything ultimately belongs to Krishna, matter appears separate because its nature is opposite to Krishna’s.
Krishna is spiritual; matter is material — by definition. Krishna is eternal; the manifestations of matter are temporary. Despite this vast difference between the transcendental Absolute Truth and the material elements that form our world, there is still an intimate connection: all of it is Krishna’s energy.
When Śrīla Prabhupāda uses the word energy, however, he uses it in a way different from modern scientific usage. In contemporary science, earth, water, or fire are usually not referred to as “energy.” Rather, scientists view these as substances that can produce energy — for example, water in a hydroelectric plant or coal in a thermal power station.
In scientific terms, energy is a measurable quantity within matter — something that causes motion and enables work to be done. It is treated as a fundamental property of the material world.
But when Prabhupāda uses the term energy, he uses it philosophically:
energy is something that is activated, directed, and utilized by an energetic source.
Matter moves because someone empowers it to move. Matter acts because someone activates it.
Thus, Krishna is the energetic, and the material world is His energy, functioning only under His supervision.
The classification of existence into various energies of the Supreme Lord is elaborated primarily in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa. The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācāryas frequently cite the well-known verse:
viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā proktā
kṣetrajñākhyā tathā parā
avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā
tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate
This tells us that:
– There is the para-śakti, the spiritual energy;
– The kṣetrajña-śakti, the marginal or conscious living beings; and
– The avidyā or karma-saṁjñā-śakti, the third energy, which is the material energy.
Here in the Gītā, Krishna is speaking about this third energy, the material energy, and He identifies eight elements as its primary components. Among these eight, five are gross and three are subtle.
Although the fifth gross element, ether (ākāśa), is subtle in the sense that it cannot be directly seen, it is still considered gross because its presence is inferred through a perceivable quality — sound. Just as we infer the existence of wind by the feel of movement, warmth, or coolness, similarly we infer the presence of ether by the transmission of sound.
The remaining three — mind, intelligence, and false ego — are completely subtle, beyond the range of our physical senses.
The framework Krishna presents here in the Bhagavad Gītā is drawn from Sāṅkhya, one of the six classical systems of Vedic philosophy. Krishna refers to Sāṅkhya earlier in 2.39, where He says, “I have explained this to you through analysis (Sāṅkhya).” There, the analysis primarily distinguished the body from the soul. Here, however, Krishna expands the analysis to include not only spirit and matter but also the component elements of matter itself, ultimately connecting both matter and spirit as His energies.
Later, Krishna will again speak about Sāṅkhya in 13.6–7, offering a more elaborate breakdown of the elements of material nature.
While classical (atheistic) Sāṅkhya simply catalogues elements, theistic Sāṅkhya — as presented in the Gītā and later in the Bhāgavatam’s Third Canto — accepts the same analytical structure but places it within a theistic worldview, where all elements are understood as manifestations of the Supreme Lord’s energies.
In the history of science, two broad approaches have been used to explain material diversity:
1. Elemental Theory — used by Greek thinkers, proposing fundamental elements like earth, water, air, fire.
2. Atomic Theory — foundational in modern science, explaining matter as composed of fundamental atoms and particles.
Sometimes, the Sāṅkhya analysis of the Gītā and the Bhāgavatam is superficially equated with the outdated Greek elemental theory, which had several shortcomings and was largely rejected. But this comparison is inaccurate.
The Sāṅkhya of the Gītā and especially of the Bhāgavatam is far more sophisticated, nuanced, and metaphysically grounded, and should not be casually grouped with the Greek model.
A detailed comparison is well beyond the scope of this discussion, but the essential point for us, as readers of the Gītā, is this:
While Sāṅkhya offers an analysis of matter into various components, the purpose of this analysis in the Gītā is not to teach material science.
The purpose is to help us understand:
“me prakṛtir” — all of this is My energy.
This is the heart of the teaching.
When we look at the world — whether something appears beautiful or ugly — our consciousness tends to get captivated. Attraction and aversion both bind the mind.
Krishna is teaching Arjuna how to fix the mind on Him, and one powerful method is this:
Whatever you perceive in material existence, learn to see it as My energy.
When we adopt this perception, the objects of our senses — whether pleasant or unpleasant — become reminders of Krishna. This transforms our interaction with the world into a means of spiritual awareness and devotional growth.
Thank you.
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