भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च | अहंकार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा ||७-४||
bhūmirāpo.analo vāyuḥ khaṃ mano buddhireva ca .
ahaṃkāra itīyaṃ me bhinnā prakṛtiraṣṭadhā ||7-4||
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and egoism thus is My Nature divided eightfold.
In simple words
Krishna describes the building blocks of the physical world: "Earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, intellect, and the sense of 'I' — these eight things make up My material nature."
Contemporary scholarly and practical interpretations for modern seekers.
Swami Sivananda
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.
Swami Chinmayananda
This interpretation draws on a specific tradition and may not represent the view of any single school. For authoritative guidance within a specific tradition, seek a qualified teacher.
The great sages of the Vedic age, through subtle reflection upon the origin of the universe, have revealed that the world arises from the union of inert matter (prakriti) and conscious principle (purusha). According to them, under the governance of purusha, the bodily instruments and sheaths fashioned from inert prakriti become endowed with consciousness and are rendered capable of all functioning. This principle may be clarified through a modern illustration. An iron steam engine possesses no motion of its own. Yet when it comes into contact with high-pressure steam, the engine becomes set in motion. Steam alone, without the aid of a machine, cannot express its power. It is only through the union of both that this work is accomplished.
The truth-seeking sages of India have described, through scientific method of inquiry, how the eternal, complete purusha has manifested as this manifold creation through union with the inert sheaths of prakriti. In this verse, Lord Sri Krishna describes prakriti, and in the next verse, the conscious principle. Should a person once clearly understand the distinction between prakriti and purusha, between the inert and the conscious, he shall readily comprehend that the identification of the atman with inert sheaths is the very cause of all his suffering. Naturally, when this false identification ceases, he recognizes his own true nature, which is the very embodiment of supreme bliss. From the mutual identification of atman and anatman, the individual soul arises. This suffering, bound soul, through discrimination between atman and anatman, comes to understand that he is in truth the conscious purusha underlying inert prakriti—not the individual soul.
To clarify for Arjuna the distinction between the inert and the conscious, Lord Sri Krishna first describes eight divisions of prakriti, called here the eightfold prakriti. Through this discrimination, each person may recognize his own pure and divine nature.
Ether, air, fire, water, and earth—these five great elements; and mind, intellect, and ego—these constitute the eightfold prakriti, which appears superimposed upon the supreme truth due to ignorance of it. In the individual being, the gross five elements manifest as the gross body, and their subtle aspects manifest as the five senses of knowledge, through which man experiences the external world. The senses of knowledge are the instruments through which sensations of objects reach the mind. The classification of these received sensations, their knowledge and determination, is the function of the intellect. Through the senses' perception of objects, their collection by the mind, and their determination by the intellect—across these three levels, a sense of "I" constantly persists, which is called ego. These are inert sheaths which, touched by consciousness, become capable of functioning as though conscious.
Thereafter, to reveal His supreme prakriti, the Lord speaks: