In this article we are going to learn about “The Five Elements “Panchmahabhoot”. Ayurveda believes them to be the building blocks of the whole universe, The Earth and all living beings.
Ayurveda is holistic science, practiced in India for more than 5000 years. It is the ancient healing system explaining uses of herbs and a well structured system for diagnosing human disorders, treating them accordingly and individually through nature.
In this era of chemical loaded lifestyle, many people are suffering from lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, obesity, hypothyroid and many more along with oxidative stress disorders, it seems impossible to get rid of the lifelong consumption of lab made chemical compositions with all their side effects.
Therefore let’s get started to learn about you and your body through the wisdom of Ayurveda.
Lifestyle diseases can be treated by just knowing yourself and your body in association with nature/ universe.
Everybody knows about abnormal i.e one which is not within normal limit is abnormal. But i have a question for everyone:
What is normal?
Assuming, out of a hundred people 90 people who show the same characteristics of a single trait are considered normal.
But nature says, each and every individual is unique and different from each other. It is really difficult to find a natural clone of yourself except being monozygotic twins, but their appearance is only morphologically similar. Maybe they have entirely different personalities, thoughts.
Ayurveda works on the basics of tridosha (humors) i.e Vata, Pitta and Kapha. These humors are responsible for individual Prakriti and Vikruti. But, before proceeding further into detail let us take a look at panchmahabhoot( the five basic elements) in connection to human body and what they do.
Man is a microcosm:
According to ayurveda man is a microcosm. This universe is made of five elements (panchmahabhoot) i.e Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Man is also made of these elements which manifest differently and function.
We as humans have four biological and spiritual instinct to fulfill:
Dharma(religion)
Artha( finance)
Kama(reproduction/procreation)
Moksha(salvation/the ultimate freedom)
In order to fulfill these four a man should have a long and healthy life bringing attention to the meaning of Ayurveda, “Ayu” means “life” and “Veda” means “knowing”. So ayurveda is the way to live life holistically with the right set of rules .
The five elements
The first element is ether :
Also known as space. One can see there is space inside our body like mouth, gastro-intestinal tract, abdominal cavity. All the cavity inside our body have this space element.
The second element is air:
Responsible for movement, muscle movements, pulsations, pumping of heart, exhalation and inhalation by lungs, peristaltic movements of small and large intestines, even the nerve impulses either sensory or motor are due to Air.
The third element is fire.
Fire is pure intelligence. It’s the fire which is responsible for cellular intelligence, perception of light (vision), body temperature and thinking process by brain.
The fourth element is water
All secretions including salivary to digestive, plasma to cytoplasm is water.
Water is the carrier to each tissue, organ and system comprising 55-60 % of the human body.
The last and fifth element is earth responsible for holding.
The solid structures or skeletal parts which give support to the body like bones, vertebrae, nails, tendons, cartilages, skin and hair are all derived from earth.
The five senses and the five elements
Human perception through the five senses are directly related to five elements
Space /ether is related to hearing and production of speech
Air is related to sense of touch
Fire is related to color, complexion of a person, vision/eyes
Water is related to tongue/sense of taste
Earth sense of smell/nose.
| Element | Sense | Organ | Action | Organ of action |
| ether | hearing | ear | speech | Vocal chords, mouth |
| air | touch | skin | holding | hands |
| fire | vision | eyes | walking | feet |
| water | taste | tongue | reproduction | genitals |
| earth | smell | nose | excretion | anus |
According to ayurveda these five elements originated from pure cosmic consciousness and if you want to bring your body in harmony with this consciousness you need to clear your concept about minuteness of nature and human body.