According to Lord Kapila’s Sankhya philosophy the sense of touch originates in the Supreme Lord. It is called sparsa. In a lecture in Mumbai on December 23rd 1974, Srila Prabhupada said: “When there is interaction of the three gunas, then this one mahat-tattva becomes divided into twenty-four catur-vimsati tattva. This is called Sankhya philosophy, to analyze and to study the twenty-four elements which is controlling the activities of the whole material world. That is called catur-vimsati tattva. What are they? Pancabhih. First the five elements, namely earth, water, fire, air, sky. This is pancabhih . Then next pancabhih , tan-matra, means rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa. Form, rupa. Rupa means form; rasa means taste; sabda means sound; rupa, rasa, sabda-sparsa means touch; and rupa, rasa, sabda, sparsa, and… Gandha. So the sky is known by sabda, sound. This is tan-matra. This is… By sound, you can understand there is sky. If you clap, there is sound (claps). You understand there is sky. Sky is understood by the sabda. Then air is understood by sparsa. Just like electric fan is running, but even if I do not see it is running, because the air is touching my body, I can understand the air is there.”
Tactile energy