Text 22] What Prahlāda Learned in the Womb
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(taste),  gandha  (smell),  śabda  (sound) and  sparśa  (touch). Within the earth are the fragrance of roses, the taste of sweet fruit, and whatever else we want. As stated in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  (1.10.4),  sarva-kāma-dughā mahī : the earth ( mahī ) contains all our requirements. Thus the objects of sense perception are all present in  bhūmi , or the earth. The gross material elements and subtle material elements (mind, intelligence and  ahaṅkāra , false ego) constitute the total material energy.
Within the total material energy are the three material modes or qualities. These qualities— sattva-guṇa ,  rajo-guṇa  and  tamo-guṇa —belong not to the soul but to the material energy. It is because of the interaction of these three material modes of nature that the five knowledge-gathering senses, the five working senses and their controller, the mind, are manifested. Then, according to these modes, the living entity gets the opportunity to perform different types of  karma  with different types of knowledge, thinking, feeling and willing. Thus the bodily machine begins to work.
This has all been properly analyzed in  sāṅkhya-yoga  by the great  ācāryas , especially by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, in His incarnation as Devahūti-putra Kapila. This is indicated here by the word  ācāryaiḥ . We need not follow anyone who is not an authorized  ācārya .  Ācāryavān puruṣo veda : one can understand the truth fully when he has taken shelter of an expert  ācārya .
The living entity is individual, but the body is a composition of many material elements. This is proved by the fact that as soon as the living entity quits this combination of material elements, it becomes a mere conglomeration of matter. The matter is qualitatively one, and the spiritual soul is qualitatively one with the Supreme. The Supreme is one, and the individual soul is one, but the individual soul is understood to be the master of the individual combination of material energy, whereas the Supreme Lord is the controller of the total material energy. The living entity is the master of his particular body, and according to his activities he is subjected to different types of pains and pleasures. However, although the Supreme Person, the Paramātmā, is also one, He is present as an individual in all the different bodies.
The material energy is in fact divided into twenty-four elements. The individual soul, the owner of the individual body, is a twenty-fifth subject, and above everything is Lord Viṣṇu as Paramātmā, the supreme