Five Elements and the Human Body

 

Photo Credit: Fire up Water down

Five Elements and the Human Body 

In these five elements, unless we want to explore mystical dimensions, we do not have to bother about the akasha. Among the other four, seventy two percent of our body is just water. Another twelve percent is earth. Another six percent is air, which is the easiest thing to manage and take charge of because there is breath and we can take charge of it in a certain way. Another four percent is fire. Taking mastery over fire could do many things to us but because we are householders living in family situations, we do not have to take charge of fire. The remaining is akasha. We do not have to bother about that unless we want to explore mystical dimensions of existence. To live well, four elements are enough. The fifth one is not relevant for people who just want to live well. 

If these five elements do not cooperate, we can struggle as much as we want, nothing happens. Only with their cooperation, from the basic aspects to the highest aspect, our life becomes a possibility. Practice of Ashtang Yog helps us in gaining mastery over the elements by purifying our inner system.

This human system is like a doorway. A door has two aspects to it – if we are always facing closed doors, for us doors mean something which stops us. If doors are opening up for us, then for us a door means a possibility of entering into something. In either case, it is the same door; which side of the door we are on decides everything about our life, even in terms of time and space. Whether we experience this body as a great possibility or a great barrier simply depends on the extent to which these five elements are cooperating. 

Practice of yoga under the guidance of a Master has something to do with organising these five elements in such a way that we can reap the best out of the individual being and the cosmic nature because both are just a play of these five elements. Whether this individual physical body becomes a stepping stone for our ultimate possibility or a hurdle towards that, essentially depends on how we are able to deal with these five elements. What we are right now is just a little bit of earth, water, air and temperature. All the ingredients are out there in the garden; it just takes a little divine touch to make these four things into a throbbing human being. 

Just by sitting where we are, if we are aware of how the water, air, earth and fire in our body are functioning, suddenly we live our life with so much ease that people start thinking we are superhuman. 

But this is not about being superhuman, this is about realising that being human is super. Being human is super if only we learn to use our humanity and this human mechanism for the good of humanity rather than making it into a barrier.