Text 41
Knowledge of the Absolute state of the entity is a knowledge of the entity itself.
367
bhūmir āpo’nalo vāyuḥ  
 khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca  
 ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me  
 bhinnā prakṛtir astadhā
bhūmiḥ —earth;  āpaḥ —water;  analaḥ —fire;  vāyuḥ —air;  kham —ether;  manaḥ —mind;  buddhiḥ —intelligence;  eva —certainly;  ca —and;  ahaṅkāraḥ —false ego;  iti —thus;  iyam —all these;  me —My;  bhinnā —separated;  prakṛtiḥ —energies;  aṣtadhā —total eight.
TRANSLATION
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.
PURPORT
The science of God analyzes the constitutional position of God and His diverse energies. Material nature is called  prakṛti , or the energy of the Lord in His different  puruṣa  incarnations (expansions) as described in the  Svatvata Tantra :
vişnos tu trīni rūpāni puruṣākhyāny atho viduḥ ekantu mahataḥ sraṣṭṛ dvitiyaṁ tv aṇḍa-saṁsthitam tṛtīyaṁ sarvabhūta-sthaṁ tāni jñātvā vimucyate
“For material creation, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s plenary expansion assumes three Viṣṇus. The first one, Mahā-Viṣṇu, creates the total material energy, known as  mahat-tattva . The second, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, enters into all the universes to create diversities in each of them. The third, Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, is diffused as the all-pervading Supersoul in all the universes and is known as Paramātmā, who is present even within the atoms. Anyone who knows these three Viṣṇus can be liberated from material entanglement.”
This material world is a temporary manifestation of one of the energies of the Lord. All the activities of the material world are directed by these three Viṣṇu expansions of Lord Kṛṣṇa. These  Puruṣas  are called incarnations. Generally one who does not know the science of God (Kṛṣṇa) assumes that this material world is for the enjoyment of the living entities and that the living entities are the causes ( Puruṣas ), controllers and enjoyers of the material energy. According to  Bhagavad-gītā  this atheistic conclusion is false. In the verse under discussion it is stated that Kṛṣṇa is the original cause of the material manifestation.  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  also confirms this. The ingredients of the material manifestation are separated