162 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 10, Ch. 2
passion and ignorance. The fruits of bodily happiness have four
tastes—religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and
liberation—which are experienced through five senses for acquir-
ing knowledge in the midst of six circumstances: lamentation, il-
lusion, old age, death, hunger and thirst. The seven layers of bark
covering the tree are skin, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow and
semen, and the eight branches of the tree are the five gross and
three subtle elements—earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelli-
gence and false ego. The tree of the body has nine hollows—the
eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth, the rectum and the
genitals —and ten leaves, the ten airs passing through the body. In
this tree of the body there are two birds: one is the individual soul,
and the other is the Supersoul.
PURPORT

This material world is composed of five principal elements—earth,
water, fire, air and ether—all of which are emanations from Krsna. Al-
though materialistic scientists may accept these five primary elements as
the cause of the material manifestation, these elements in their gross and
subtle states are produced by Krsna, whose marginal potency also pro-
duces the living entities working within this material world. The Seventh
Chapter of Bhagavad-gitd clearly states that the entire cosmic manifesta-
tion is a combination of two of Krsna’s energies—the superior energy
and the inferior energy. The living entities are the superior energy, and
the inanimate material elements are His inferior energy. In the dormant
stage, everything rests in Krsna.

Material scientists cannot give such a thorough analysis of the material
structure of the body. The analysis of the material scientists concerns it-
self only with inanimate matter, but this is inadequate because the living
entity is completely separate from the material bodily structure. In
Bhagavad-gita (7.5) the Lord says:

apareyam itas tv anyam
prakrtim viddhi me param

Jiva-bhitam mahdé-baho
yayedam dharyate jagat
