Bhagavad Gita · Jnana Vijnana YogaChapter 7, Shloka 4 (7.4)
Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्
भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च
अहङ्कार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा
॥ 7.4 ॥
bhūmirāpo'nalo vāyuḥ khaṃ mano buddhireva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṃ me bhinnā prakṛtiraṣṭadhā
Translation
"Earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, intellect and ego — thus is this nature of mine divided into eight parts."
Interpretation
Shankaracharya — the subtle elements. Bhūmiḥ iti pṛthivī-tanmātram ucyate na sthūlā — "earth" here means the subtle tanmatra, not gross soil (since it says "nature divided into eight"). Manaḥ iti manasaḥ kāraṇam ahaṃkāraḥ — by "mind" is meant its cause, ego; buddhiḥ … mahat-tattvam; ahaṃkāraḥ iti avidyā-saṃyuktam avyaktam — ego means the unmanifest (root nature) joined with ignorance (avidya); the analogy: yathā viṣa-saṃyuktam annaṃ viṣam ity ucyate — just as food mixed with poison is called "poison". And this nature is me mama aiśvarī māyā-śaktiḥ — my sovereign power of maya.
Acharya Ramanuja — the world of enjoyment. Asya vicitrānanda-bhogya-bhogopakaraṇa-bhoga-sthāna-rūpeṇa avasthitasya jagataḥ prakṛtiḥ — this wondrous world exists as objects of enjoyment, instruments of enjoyment (the senses), and places of enjoyment; its nature, gandhādi-guṇaka-pṛthivy-ap-tejo-vāyv-ākāśādi-rūpeṇa manaḥ-prabhṛtīndriya-rūpeṇa ca mahad-aṃkāra-rūpeṇa ca (corpus: महदंकार — a shortened/erroneous form of "mahad-ahaṃkāra") in eight forms, is madīyā — mine.
The difference: Shankara reads the elements in their causal form (tanmatra, mahat, the unmanifest) and calls nature maya-shakti; Ramanuja — nature is the real material cause of the world, the Lord's "own".
AI-assisted draft translation — under review.