Everything that is mobile & immobile are made up of Five Elements also called “Pancha Bhutas” in Sanskrit. The Five Elements are: Earth, Fire, Space, Water & Wind (Air). Apart from these Five elements, the other “Fives” are:
- Five Sense Organs (Jnanendriyas) are: Ears, Eyes, Nose, Mouth/Tongue & Skin.
- Five Objects of Perception (Tanmatras): Sound, Sight, Smell, Taste & Touch.
- Five Objects of Action (Karma Indriyas): Speech, Hands, Feet, Organ of Excretion (Anus) & Organ of Procreation (Genitals).
We will now look at the above in detail and how they relate to each other: For example, Sound (Ears) is equated with Space, Smell (Nose) with Earth, Taste (Tongue) with Water, Touch (Skin) with Air & Sight (Eyes) with Fire.
The Five Elements in both mobile & immobile objects:
The five elements or Pancha Bhutas reside in immobile objects: Trees for example. Tree trunks are dense and Space exists in them. Furthermore, its roots take in nutrients from the Earth and drink up Water so that the tree to grow (they possess taste). Also, trees need Air as they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Because of Heat or Fire element in them, leaves, bark, fruits & flowers are seen to decay & dry (they possess Touch).
Moreover, manifestation of flowers & fruits are always noticed in them. When trees are healthy, there are flowers, and many kinds of auspicious & inauspicious fragrances & scents. Trees can smell. Impacted by Wind & Thunder, fruits & flowers wither away (Plants can Hear sounds from the local environment). Creepers wind around trees and envelops it from all sides. They can see. It is seen that when they suffer from disease, they can be cured. When cut down, they grow again. They are of course living!
Now let us take a look at Five Elements or Pancha Bhutas that exist in bodies of mobile objects (eg. Human Beings), and what they comprise of:
Table 1:
1) Earth | 2)Fire | 3)Space | 4)Water | 5)Wind * |
Skin | Energy | Ears | Phelgm | Prana (In-breath) |
Flesh | Anger | Nose | Bile | Apana (Out -breath) |
Bones | Eyes | Mouth | Sweat | Vyana (Diffused Breath – in between the above two breaths) |
Marrow | Internal Fire | Heart | Fat | Samana (Equalizing Breath) |
Veins | Fire of Digestion | Stomach | Blood | Udana (Upward breath) |
*Wind or the Vital Air Sheath has the following faculties:
- Prana: The 5 senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, Tasting & touching. Vital Energy – Power of Life.
- Apana: Excretion & Procreation. That which throws out the faeces, urine, sperm, sputum, perspiration etc. Controls biological function & sexual energy.
- Vyana: Distributes digested food to different parts of the body. Energy distribution.
- Samana: Digests food consumed (Ushma – Heat or Fire Element). Equalizing/ Balancing force in the middle.
- Udana:Thought Absorption. Takes in fresh knowledge. Subtle track up the spinal cord. Power governing rise of spiritual energy
Pancha Bhutas or Five Elements vs Objects of Perception
- Ether (Akasha) – Sound (Shabda)
- Air (Vayu) – Sound and touch (Sparsha)
- Fire (Agni) – Sound, touch and form (Rupa)
- Water (Apah) – Sound, touch, form and taste (Rasa)
- Earth (Prithivi) – Sound, touch, form, taste and smell (Gandha)
It is seen from the above that the most subtle and the first element namely Ether or Space or Akasha has only one Guna or Property which is Sound or Shabda. The rest of the elements accumulate the previous properties with the highest gross element namely Earth or Prithivi which has all the five properties which correspond to the five senses. This ordering is not arbitrary, and it is based on the decreasing subtlety and increasing gross nature of elements.
Sound – the primary property of Space (sometimes related to Akasha).
Space in modern scientific sense is void and should not be mistaken for emptiness. It is a “living void” that contains matter & energy. Akasha on the other hand is known in Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism as the all pervading supreme consciousness called “Brahman”. Space is filled with various quantum fields throughout, where particles exist as vibrations in this field. It is the source of life! This field cannot be removed and is the carrier of all matter. As per theory of relatively, there is no absolute space & time – both are relative and interconnected and affected by the observer’s motion & gravity – a four dimensional continuum, combined together known as space-time.
Akasha has only one quality, which is sound associated with it. The remaining four elements of air, fire, water, and earth cannot corrupt Akasha as it is considered Supreme Brahman the basic substratum from which these four elements spring forth. Air, fire, water, and earth emerge from Akasha and merge back into it. The order of creation begins with Akasha and from it emerges Air – Fire- Water & finally Earth. Thus, Aksaha is considered the foremost with sound as its only quality!
Understanding the qualitative aspects of each of the Five Elements:
We have seen above that Pancha Bhutas or Five Elements exist in our human body. We will now look at 10 qualities or properties of each of these five elements that exert their influence on us Humans.
The qualities of Five Elements (50 in total):
Table 2:
Earth | Water | Fire | Wind | Space |
Stability | Coolness | Transformation | Control | Sound |
Hardness | Adaptability | Energy | Touch | Expansiveness |
Productiveness | Moisture | Heat | Prana, Life Force | All Pervading, Infinite |
Smell | Vitality | Intensity | Independence | Lack of foundation |
Attachment | Softness | Radiance | Strength | Lack of refuge |
Capacity | Tranquility | Purification | Speed | Not being manifest |
Accumulation | Taste | Affection | Confusion | Not being transformed/changed |
Establishment | Fluidity/Change | Lightness | Effort | Ability of not being resisted |
Fortitude | Wetness | Sharpness | Performance of tasks, Sustenance | Ability to cause transformation. |
Gravity | Odorless | Ability to rise up | Direction | Subtleness |
Nine qualities of the Mind: Fickleness, argumentation, perception, expression, detachment, imagination, forgiveness, propensity towards good, propensity towards evil & lack of readiness.
Five qualities of Intelligence: Reasoning & Critical thinking, Creativity, concentration, Observation & Analysis.
Considering only five qualities from the mind, we as humans have a total of 60 qualities for the five elements, mind & intelligence. Human Beings are always bound by these qualities. But as humans we can use our intellect to counter the negative effects of any of these qualities.
Final merger of the Human Body with Five Elements:
Human body is made up of 75% Water (Hydrogen + Oxygen), Carbon, Nitrogen, and host of other elements like Calcium, Potassium, Iron, Magnesium, Sulfur, etc (which are found on mother Earth), together with the other four Main elements listed in Table 1. Upon death, Hindus consign their body to flames – (Fire), also known as cremation. The body requires Air to burn. The resultant smoke goes up into Space. The Sound of the popping of the skull (cracking due to heat which will at approx. 1000+ deg C), signifies the final release of Atman or the Soul. While performing the last rites, the ashes of the body are then made to flow into a river (Water) and some of it touches the Earth below.
The River finally meets the Ocean signifying the symbolism of the Jivatman (River) merging with the Paramatman (Ocean). Thus, the body which is made up of Five Elements goes back into the Five Elements upon death. The cycle is complete. We go back to where we came from! Where is the grief upon death? There is no grief! But we are emotional beings. There is Grief when you lose a beloved one, but it is temporary!
So what then happens to our Atman or Brahman & Subtle Body after death? I have discussed this in great detail in my two part blog titled – Journey of the Soul (< Click here to know more, if required)
Reference for Pancha Bhutas or Five Elements: Mahabharata – Moksha Dharma Parva.
Understanding the science behind birth, death & re-birth:
Physicists started studying high energy particles with invention of bubble chambers in 1952. When charged particles are passed through a medium of superheated liquid (liquid hydrogen for example), they leave a track of bubbles which can be filmed. Today these chambers are replaced by more sophisticated electronic detectors to study particle collisions in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider – a particle smasher). An atom is made up of protons, neutrons & electrons. Physicists discovered that the sub-constituents of protons, neutrons are made up of quarks and that the electrons which are elementary particles, are a type of leptons which cannot be broken down into smaller particles, unlike protons & neutrons.
Everything in our universe, both living & non-living are made up of particles. After the Big Bang, when universe came into existence, these particles had no mass. The discovery of the “Higgs Boson particle” at CERN gave rise to a “theory” that a field existed which provided mass to these particles when this field interacted with it. This mass providing invisible field is named the “Higgs field”(after the British theoretical physicist Peter Higgs) and is present everywhere is our universe. Particles with different masses through their interactions produce different energies & patterns and follow Einstein’s law (E=mc2) which states that mass & energy are inter-convertible. Experiments done in the Large Hadron Collider have proved that mass can be converted to energy and energy into mass!
Conversion of mass to energy & vice versa:
Every particle has an anti-particle of same mass but opposite charge. A neutral particle like photon that is mass-less and does not have a charge. Therefore a photon is it’s own anti-particle! The anti-particle of electron is called a positron and both have mass. But when both collide (as was evident during the study at CERN), they destroy each other and create two mass-less photons and release a burst of energy. This is an example of how mass is converted to energy. The other example is nuclear fusion (occurs in stars & sun where nuclei of hydrogen & helium combine to release light & heat). and nuclear fission (nuclear power plants where uranium nucleus is split and converted to heat energy)
Also, the collision of two high energy mass-less photons can create particles with mass (an electron & positron pair) since energy & mass can be interchanged. The pair’s tracks are visible in the bubble chamber while the photons are invisible as it has neutral charge. So in very high energy collisions, the kinetic energy involved, can create new particles with mass that were never present before! This is an example of how energy is converted to mass. Then there are “virtual particles” that pop in out of of existence in vacuum, without interacting with other particles at all. An example is that of sub atomic particles like proton, anti-proton & pion being formed out of nothing and disappearing quickly into vacuum.
This is why eastern mystics have said that form is formlessness & formlessness is form! Thus, the unending “dance” – of birth, death & re-birth of humans who are nothing but a “cluster of particles” continues. Our ancients had therefore visualized & immortalized this concept of birth, existence & death as the Cosmic Dance of Lord Shiva (< click here for my very detailed blog on this subject)
I end this blog with a video of an massive entity/orb from the higher dimension, filmed by me during the long hours I spend under the night sky! (please watch in full screen)