106 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 7, Ch. 2
yathanalo darusu bhinna iyate
yathanilo deha-gatah prthak sthitah
yatha nabhah sarva-gatam na sajjate
tatha pum4én sarva-gunasrayah parah

yatha—just as; analah—the fire; da@rusu—in wood; bhinnah—
separate; iyate—is perceived; yatha—just as; anilah—the air; deha-
gatah—within the body; prthak—separate; sthitah—situated; yatha—
just as; nabhah—the sky; sarva-gatam—all-pervading; na—not; sajj-
ate—mix; tatha—similarly; pumdén—the living entity; sarva-guna-
asrayah—although now the shelter of the modes of material nature;
parah—transcendental to material contamination.

TRANSLATION

As fire, although situated in wood, is perceived to be different
from the wood, as air, although situated within the mouth and
nostrils, is perceived to be separate, and as the sky, although all-
pervading, never mixes with anything, so the living entity, al-
though now encaged within the material body, of which it is the
source, is separate from it.

PURPORT

In Bhagavad-gita the Supreme Personality of Godhead has explained
that the material energy and spiritual energy both emanate from Him.
The material energy is described as me bhinna prakrtir astadha, the
eight separated energies of the Lord. But although the eight gross and
subtle material energies—namely, earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, in-
telligence and false ego—are stated to be bhinna, separate from the Lord,
actually they are not. As fire appears separate from wood and as the air
flowing through the nostrils and mouth of the body appear separate from
the body, so the Paramatma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, ap-
pears separate from the living being but is actually separate and not
separate simultaneously. This is the philosophy of acintya-bhedabheda-
tattva propounded by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. According to the reac-
tions of karma, the living being appears separate from the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead, but actually he is very intimately related with the
