Shloka 4
हजारों मनुष्योंमें कोई एक मेरी प्राप्तिके लिये यत्न करता हैः और उन यत्न करनेवाले योगियोंमें भी कोई एक मेरे परायण होकर मुझको तत्त्वसे अर्थात् यथार्थरूपसे जानता है ।। भूमिरापो5नलो वायु: खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च । अहंकार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा,पृथिवी, जल, अग्नि, वायु, आकाश, मन, बुद्धि और अहंकार भी--इस प्रकार यह आठ प्रकारसे विभाजित मेरी प्रकृति है। यह आठ प्रकारके भेदोंवाली तो अपरार अर्थात् मेरी जड प्रकृति है और हे महाबाहो! इससे दूसरीको, जिससे यह सम्पूर्ण जगत् धारण किया जाता है, मेरी जीवरूपा परा अर्थात् चेतन प्रकृति जान
bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca | ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā ||
The Blessed Lord said: Among thousands of men, scarcely one strives to attain Me; and even among those yogins who strive, scarcely one, wholly devoted to Me, knows Me in truth—as I truly am. Earth, water, fire, wind, space, mind, intellect, and the sense of “I” (ego)—thus is My nature divided eightfold. This eightfold division is My lower nature (aparā), the inert and material; but, O mighty-armed one, know also My other nature, higher than this—living in essence, conscious—by which the whole world is upheld.
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse defines the Lord’s lower (material) nature as eightfold—five gross elements plus mind, intellect, and ego-sense—so the seeker can distinguish the field of material experience from the higher spiritual principle and cultivate right understanding that supports dharmic action.
In the Gītā’s teaching dialogue on the battlefield, the Lord instructs Arjuna by analyzing reality: He enumerates the constituents of material nature to clarify what binds embodied beings and to prepare Arjuna for a deeper grasp of the higher nature and devotion-based knowledge.