The Essence Of Life (5 elements)

The word 'panchatatva' originates from Sanskrit, where "panch" stands for five and "tatva" indicates elements. Following the universal law of life, every thing on this planet is composed of five basic elements or the "panchamahabhutas". These are :  Akash (Sky or Space), Vayu (Air), Jal (Water), Agni (Fire) and Prithvi (Earth).

Body as Earth:

The earth - solid as it is - houses the soil, landscape, flora and fauna. With its tremendous magnetic fields and gravitational force, it keeps every living and non-living thing grounded to the earth.

Right from the birth we try to perceive everything in this world in material "form" or Body. Even using the word "I", we refer to our Physical body. The same happens when we look outside to the World, identifying to all the forms of physical entities. We cannot relate to anything without a physical "Body" or structure. Even those things we cannot perceive with our sense organs, we try to objectify as an image with our imagination. So our world is only full of objects, bodies, entities and images.

We connect to the world outside through our body Sense organs. The five sense organs are Ears, Skin, Eyes, Tongue and Nose which help to perceive five physical attributes of this Universe, which are Sound, Touch, Sight, Taste and Smell.

In summary, we owe our existence to our physical body. This is why the ancient people referred the Body as the  Earth element, because our life is on Earth. Anything that is gross, solid, inert , the ancient's referred to as Body or Earth. This Earth is symbolized as the little finger of the hand.

Water as Mind:

Water is the source of life - and it flows within all of us. 70% of the earth is water and the same goes for the human body.

Does our Sense organs really perceive the physical world?. No. There is something subtler than the body that is involved in perception. This is the Mind or Mana. The physical eyes may be looking at an object, but if we are not mentally connected to the physical organ , there is no perception of that object.

So it is the mind that brings reality to the body or the physical world. Without the mind there is no Body. This we experience in sleep or when we are unconscious due to brain injury or anesthetized. So it is the mind that gives the body a reality.

However this mind is not solid like the Body. The mind can change rapidly and flow or alternate between various sense perceptions. The mind also can flow backward in time and leap forward in time. Because of this fluid nature, the ancient's attributed the Mind to the water element.

The Vedic Scholars says that like the fluid water solidifies into a solid block of ice, the Body is nothing but the solidified energy of the mind. The mind is represented by the ring finger. Wedding is the symbolic of the joining of two minds and hence a wedding ring is worn on the "Mind" finger!

Fire as Intelligence:

Fire is the source of energy and light. Light is important for making the beauty of the world visible to all of us - in all its radiant colours.

The sensory signals received by the body-sense-organs is perceived or translated as thoughts. Each thought refers to an object or image and we generate infinite number of such thoughts. The constant flux of thoughts is called as the mind. Interestingly ,the thoughts are stream-lined into a logical information pattern by a subtler aspect called Intelligence or Buddhi.

Without Intelligence, Mind would just be a random flow of thoughts without any logic in it. In other words, Intelligence illuminates the path for the Mind to flow logically. Hence the ancients associated the fire element with Intelligence.

Our mind, is droplets of thoughts flowing like a river and cannot be still. It flows forward to the future or backwards to the past. The most important attribute of Intelligence is that, it pulls the mind inward to the present moment, the Being, the Awareness. The intelligence ignites or fuses the Mind to the inner Awareness. Thus Intelligence is the middle man between the Mind and the inner Awareness and hence symbolized as the middle finger.

Air as Awareness:

Air, which can also be linked to space and atmosphere is a powerful life source that is important to sustain life.

Only when we are alive we can feel our Body, Mind and Intelligence. That Aliveness is known as Awareness. Without Awareness, we are dead. It is the Awareness that enlivens all the three, the Body, Mind and Intelligence. Like the air is needed for the fire to burn, Awareness is needed for the fire of intelligence to propel the functioning of the Mind and the Body. Hence the ancients rightly called the Awareness as the Air element.

According to the Ancient Vedic Science, Awareness which we feel as liveliness is the most subtlest Energy form. Like the water vapor that condenses to form fluid water and finally solidifies to ice form, Awareness-energy condenses to form the fluid Mind and solid Body. The Sum total of Awareness, intelligence, Mind and Body is called as energy. Modern Quantum physics arrives at this same conclusion that the material world (matter) is only condensed Energy.

Sky as Consciousness:

The sky is the vast open space that accommodates everything. The clear blue sky above us acts as a shelter to the earth in the day, while at night it serves as a gateway to the starry galaxies that exist light years ahead of us.

The puzzlingly fact is that we lose the Awareness of the Body, Mind and intelligence during the dream-less deep sleep state. This state is called as Consciousness by Vedic Scholars. So in deep sleep state, the Awareness of Consciousness is never lost at any time because it is the Consciousness that is manifested as Awareness, Intelligence, Mind and Body. Being in Awareness without being Aware of Intelligence, Mind and Body is known as Consciousness. In other words Consciousness is Unconditional Awareness (without any form).

Without Consciousness nothing can exist. Everything exists in Consciousness, the living , the dead, the moving the immobile, the small the big. Like everything exists in space , all existence come into "Being due to Consciousness. This is why the ancients associated Consciousness to the space element.

Like the thumb finger needed for all the other fingers to function, without Consciousness nothing can exist and function. So Consciousness is symbolized as the thumb finger.

Like the thumb that remains untouched yet needed for other fingers, so is Consciousness remains undisturbed by Awareness, Intelligence, Mind and Body. Consciousness like thumb does not depend on the other four, but all the four cannot function or exist without Consciousness. All the four, the Awareness, intelligence, Mind and Body can be experienced, but not the Consciousness, because it is the experiencer itself. This Truth is not obvious to our normal state of mind and hence the ancients termed this Truth to be secretive (Guhya) or mystical. Unfortunately common man took the statement literally and thought this Truth should not be revealed to anyone. All revelations that people experience is this Self-revealing Truth or Knowledge.

Hope you will understand relation, these five aspects of Consciousness, Awareness, Intelligence, Mind and Body are the fundamental to all attributes in this Universe. This is mirrored in every walk of life.