The Elements Of Life
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Ayurveda views each person as a unique combination of the five great or primary elements. These elements of space (ether), air, fire, water and earth are the components of all of life. Our bodies, our minds, as well as our food, is made up of combinations of these elements to create certain physiological functions.
- Space is the pure potential of all things. It is the eternal background for all things to occur. It is the pores through which cell membrane transfers information. Things come and go, but space is always existing, witnessing, and omnipresent. Even the things we consider the densest in the world, like lead, are still comprised of mostly space. Shubhra Krishan describes in her book Essential Ayurveda (2003), “It’s the medium through which you can connect with your consciousness... Once you tune into yourself, your mind’s finest impulses travel through ether to seep into your consciousness—and that is the first step toward returning to the instrument of your being.”
- Air represents the potential for movement. Without air or Prana all else ceases to live. Anything with movement has the quality of air. It is that which all else is brought from one place to another. Thoughts, food, waste, energy and reproductive fluid all travel with the power of air.
- Water is the principal of cohesion. It’s representative of the attractive forces in the universe. It brings things together. It also lubricates and cleans. From blood to mucus to the protoplasm that fills your cells, water is the element that keeps things running and moving smoothly.
- Earth is the solid matter of life. It is the foundation of our structure and support. Bones and muscle, the heaviness of our bodies, all of these have the essence of earth.
- Fire is the element of change or transformation. By adding fire we change water into gaseous state. It is this conversion of one state to another. Fire is the burning of fuel, just as our digestion demands food with its fire in the belly called hunger. The spark in our eyes, rosy cheeks, burning desire and boiling blood are all language relating to the fire that exists in us all.