Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.29.74

evaḿ pañca-vidhaḿ lińgaḿ

tri-vṛt ṣoḍaśa vistṛtam

eṣa cetanayā yukto

jīva ity abhidhīyate

SYNONYMS

evam — thus; pañca-vidham — the five sense objects; lińgam — the subtle body; tri-vṛt — influenced by the three modes; ṣoḍaśa — sixteen; vistṛtam — expanded; eṣaḥ — this; cetanayā — with the living entity; yuktaḥ — combined; jīvaḥ — the conditioned soul; iti — thus; abhidhīyate — is understood.

TRANSLATION

The five sense objects, the five sense organs, the five knowledge-acquiring senses and the mind are the sixteen material expansions. These combine with the living entity and are influenced by the three modes of material nature. Thus the existence of the conditioned soul is understood.

PURPORT

Lord Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (15.7):

mamaivāḿśo jīva-loke

jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi

prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

"The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind."

Here it is also explained that the living entity comes in contact with the sixteen material elements and is influenced by the three modes of material nature. The living entity and this combination of elements combine to form what is called jīva-bhūta, the conditioned soul that struggles hard within material nature. The total material existence is first agitated by the three modes of material nature, and these become the living conditions of the living entity. Thus the subtle and gross bodies develop, and the ingredients are earth, water, fire, air, sky, and so on. According to Śrī Madhvācārya, when consciousness, the living force in the heart, is agitated by the three modes of material nature, then the subtle body of the living entity, consisting of the mind, the sense objects, the five senses that acquire knowledge and the five senses for acting in the material condition, becomes possible.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness