In an attempt to explain the world outside as a marriage between matter and spirit, great thinkers of the Vedic period had exercised their philosophical acumen and had given us the Sankhyan Philosophy. According to them, the Spiritual Factor (Purusha) presiding over a given matter envelopment, dynamises the inert matter and makes the insentient mineral assembly to act, as though it is intelligent and vital. This idea becomes clear to us when we take an example from the modern world.

With steel and iron, the manufacturer completes a steam-engine and when the cold engine is harnessed to steam, at high pressure, it does work. Steam by itself can never express its dynamic capacity and strength; on the other hand, when it is made to work through a given equipment, it is capable of adding motion and performance to the inert iron assemblage.

Thus, one of the schools of philosophy in India tries to explain scientifically, how the Eternal and the Perfect Self comes to express Itself as the world-of-plurality, in the embrace of matter. This also explains the relationship between Spirit and matter. The technical terms used in the philosophy for those two items are: Prakriti, for the “matter-envelopments,” and Purusha for the “Spirit-factor.”

Krishna explains in this and the following stanza, all the items that together constitute the matter and those that constitute the Spiritual Entity within a living man. Once the individual comes to understand clearly the distinction between matter and Spirit he will indeed come to understand that the Spirit identifying with matter, is the cause for all Its sufferings and when It is detached from Its identifications, it rediscoveres for itself its own essential nature as Perfection and Bliss Absolute. The spirit identifying with matter, and sharing the destinies of the inert equipment, is called the “ego” (Jeeva). It is the “ego” that comes to rediscover itself to be nothing other than the Spirit that presides over matter.

In order to make Arjuna realise how exactly one is to understand the true nature of the Self, in all Its divine might and glory, Lord Krishna tries to enumerate the matter-aspect, as distinct from the Spiritual-Truth in each individual.

The five great elements, mind, intellect and ego constitute, according to the Geeta, the eight-fold Prakriti that has come to be superimposed upon the Truth through ignorance. The five great cosmic elements are represented in the microcosm by the five sense-organs by which the individual comes to experience and live in the world of sense-objects. Thus, the list making up Prakriti is nothing other than the subtle body and its vehicles of expression are constituted of the sense-organs. The sense-organs are the channels through which the world of stimuli reaches within, and the inner point of focus of the five sense-organs is called the “mind”. The impulses received by the mind are rationally classified and systematised into the knowledge of their perception by the intellect. At all these three levels of sense perception, mental reception, and intellectual assimilation, there is a continuous sense of I-ness, which is called the “ego”. These constitute the equipments through which, at the touch of Life, man functions as the intelligent being that he is.

WHAT THEN IS YOUR HIGHER NATURE? LISTEN:

Iyam, this; prakrtih, Prakrti, [Prakrti here does not mean the Pradhana of the Sankhyas.] the divine power called Maya; me, of Mine, as described; bhinna, is divided; astadha, eight-forl; iti, thus: bhumih, earth-not the gross earth but the subtle element called earth, this being understood from the statement, ‘Prakrti (of Mine) is divided eight-fold’. Similarly, the subtle elements alone are referred to even by the words water etc. Apah, water; analah, fire; vayuh, air; kham, space; manah, mind. By ‘mind’ is meant its source, egoism. By buddhih, intellect, is meant the principle called mahat [Mahat means Hiranyagarbha, or Cosmic Intelligence.] which is the source of egoism. By ahankarah, egoism, is meant the Unmanifest, associated [Associated, i.e. of the nature of.] with (Cosmic) ignorance. As food mixed with position is called poison, similarly the Unmainfest, which is the primordial Cause, is called egoism since it is imbued with the impressions resulting from egoism; and egoism is the impelling force (of all). It is indeed seen in the world that egoism is the impelling cause behind all endeavour.