Shloka 4
Brahmā’s Enumeration of Primacies (Ādi) and the Supremacy of Knowledge
Jñāna
शब्दस्यादिस्तथा55काशमेष भूतकृतो गुण: । गन्धोंका आदि कारण भूमि है। रसोंका जल, रूपोंका ज्योतिर्मय आदित्य, स्पर्शोंका वायु और शब्दका आदिकारण आकाश है। ये गन्ध आदि पज्चभूतोंसे उत्पन्न गुण हैं ।।
vāyudeva uvāca — gandhasyādi-kāraṇaṃ bhūmiḥ; rasasyāpaḥ; rūpasya jyotirmaya ādityaḥ; sparśasya vāyuḥ; śabdasya ādikāraṇam ākāśaḥ. ete gandhādayaḥ pañca-bhūtebhya utpannā guṇāḥ. ataḥ paraṃ pravakṣyāmi bhūtānām ādim uttamam. sūryaḥ samasta-grahāṇām ādiḥ, jaṭharānalaḥ sarva-prāṇinām ādiḥ ucyate. sāvitryāḥ sarva-vidyānām āditvaṃ, prajāpatiś ca devatānām ādiḥ.
伐由说道：“地为香之初因；水为味之初因；光焰之日为色相之初因；风为触之初因；虚空为声之初因。香等诸法，皆由五大所生之德。今我当宣说众生之中至上之本源：日轮被称为诸行星之源首；腹中消化之火（jāṭharāgni）被称为维系一切生灵之本。娑维特丽（Sāvitrī）为诸学之泉源；生主（Prajāpati）为诸天之先。”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
It maps each sensory quality to its elemental cause—smell to earth, taste to water, form to the luminous sun/fire principle, touch to air, and sound to space—then elevates sustaining origins (Sun, digestive fire, Sāvitrī, Prajāpati) as worthy of recognition and reverence within an ordered cosmos.
Vāyudeva is instructing the listener in a doctrinal explanation of the elements and their qualities, moving from basic cosmological correspondences to naming higher ‘origins’ that sustain worlds, living beings, learning, and the divine order.