Speaker: HG Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu
March 30, 2014
SB 11.22.18 — As the material elements, headed by the mahat-tattva, are transformed, they receive their specific potencies from the glance of the Supreme Lord, and being amalgamated by the power of nature, they create the universal egg.
SB 11.22.19 — According to some philosophers there are seven elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether, along with the conscious spirit soul and the Supreme Soul, who is the basis of both the material elements and the ordinary spirit soul. According to this theory, the body, senses, life air and all material phenomena are produced from these seven elements.
SB 11.22.20 — Other philosophers state that there are six elements — the five physical elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether) and the sixth element, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That Supreme Lord, endowed with the elements that He has brought forth from Himself, creates this universe and then personally enters within it.
SB 11.22.21 — Some philosophers propose the existence of four basic elements, of which three — fire, water and earth — emanate from the fourth, the Self. Once existing, these elements produce the cosmic manifestation, in which all material creation takes place.
SB 11.22.22 — Some calculate the existence of seventeen basic elements, namely the five gross elements, the five objects of perception, the five sensory organs, the mind, and the soul as the seventeenth element.
SB 11.22.23 — According to the calculation of sixteen elements, the only difference from the previous theory is that the soul is identified with the mind. If we think in terms of five physical elements, five senses, the mind, the individual soul and the Supreme Lord, there are thirteen elements.
SB 11.22.24 — Counting eleven, there are the soul, the gross elements and the senses. Eight gross and subtle elements plus the Supreme Lord would make nine.
SB 11.22.25 — Thus great philosophers have analyzed the material elements in many different ways. All of their proposals are reasonable, since they are all presented with ample logic. Indeed, such philosophical brilliance is expected of the truly learned.
Listen to Recording:
- tan matra (35:18 -36:05)
- matra = merely
- tan matra = merely that, bare bones, essence
- Sense and reference (38:45 -40:42)
- western philosophy
- reference = object
- planet Venus
- sense = meaning (way term refers to object)
- morning/evening star
- reference = object
- self/atma = body, mind, soul
- self = reference
- body, mind, soul = sense
- western philosophy

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