continuing...
[Srimad Bhagavatam- Sankhya - 3-26-12]
mahā-bhūtāni pañcaiva
bhūr āpo ’gnir marun nabhaḥ
tan-mātrāṇi ca tāvanti
gandhādīni matāni me
Sri Paramathma says....the five maha bhuta...now this something that most of the people know...but whats more important here will the way things work here...
the five major elements...please note the term "Maha"...it very clearly indicates that these are the principle elements and many further elements can be derived from them...hence the term Maha..to separate them from the sub elements we see everywhere
- Bhuh
- Aapah
- Agnih
- Marut
- Nabhah
Bhuh here indicates the earth which itself is an entity which is further made up of millions of other smaller elements...so all of that put together..whatever constitutes to form this planet is collectively called the first major bhuta
Aapah here indicates "water"...its one of the major elements again which is in principle different from the element earth...
Agnih here indicates the fire...
Marut here indicates air
Nabhah is a term which is quite ambiguous...many say Nabhah is space...some even say its "ether"...some say its the atmosphere...it mainly depends on the context in which it is used...for now lets not worry what is correct definition as we will come across these elements later when we discuss their origin...
now comes the even more interesting part which is the term "matra"..this is a very important term as this in principle is the "fundamental information packet" which contains the value present in the maha bhuta...every bhuta has a matra and this matra is the "information packet"
- smell
- taste
- color
- touch
- sound
we will get back to these matras when we discuss the indriyas next
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