The material creations produced by individual beings are therefore characterized by passion. With the passage of time in a given age, the influence of the three attributes and modes of influence of material nature: virtue, passion, and ignorance, increases markedly.

In the Iron Age, also called the Black Age or the Dark Age, for example, our own, where the influence of passion predominates, material action in various forms develops in the name of the progress of civilization, and thus plunges us, as distinct beings, ever deeper into forgetfulness of our true identity, our true spiritual nature.

If they cultivate virtue to some extent, they may then have a fleeting glimpse of their true spiritual nature, but because passion predominates, virtue deteriorates and loses its strength.

It is therefore impossible to transcend the influence of the three attributes and modes of influence of material nature, and consequently very difficult to attain the realization of the Lord, He who exists forever beyond these influences, even if through various practices one places oneself more firmly in virtue.

In the material universe, three principles operate predominantly and appear as the elements in their raw state: that which pertains to raw matter, that which concerns its maintenance, and that which generates material action. Their manifestation continues in the use made of them by deluded beings to create objects for the pleasures of the senses.

The introverted material ego thus transforms into three aspects: virtue, passion, and ignorance, which in turn produce the triple manifestation of the powers that generate matter, knowledge relating to material creations, and the intelligence that guides these material activities.

The darkness of the false ego (false ego or material ego, the force that binds the incarnate being to material existence, pushing them to identify with their body and seek to dominate matter) generates ether, the first of the five elements, and sound is its ethereal form. Sound is to ether what the object of vision is to the seer.

The five elements: ether, air, fire, water, and earth, are all manifestations of the darkness of the false ego. This amounts to saying that the false ego, within the aggregate of the global energy of material nature, is born from the marginal energy of the Lord, and that from this false ego, which seeks to dominate material creation, come the elements necessary for the illusory pleasure of living beings—humans, animals, and plants. Living beings practically rule over the material elements as masters and beneficiaries, although the Supreme Lord dominates them all. Truly, no one other than God can be called the beneficiary, but in their illusion, the distinct beings aspire to take on this role themselves. Thus, the false ego is born.

With these aspirations of the deluded beings, the deceptive elements are also born, by the Lord's will, which they may eagerly but vainly covet.