According to Hindu thought the whole world is composed of 5 elements , also known as panch mahabhut. They are Akash, Vayu, Agni , Jal and Prithvi. On the face of it this seems like a very primitive thought . The world seems to be composed of so many elements and the 5 elements as primary constituent does not make any sense. But as one studies the concepts in greater detail the mystery unravels and the beautiful and absolutely coherent system of thought comes into view.
To understand the mystery of panch mahabhut few things need to be clarified.
In the Indian system of philosophy the process of knowing anything was studied very meticulously. Central to any knowledge is knower and this was always very clearly understood to Indians. In ordinary sense it can be said that the knower is the person. But we went one step further and questioned , what inside a person gains knowledge?
To understand it better consider the human body as an instrument which interacts with the outside world as well as the inside world with the help of senses. 5 external senses i.e sense of sound , touch, sight , taste and smell and one internal instrument i.e mind which percieves the thoughts ,dreams etc . Now when we say that I see something or I smell something what exactly do we mean?
If we take the sense of sight only what happens when the seeing occurs?
At a gross level one can say that light gets reflected from the object and passes through the pupil of eyes on to the retina where the image of object is formed and this image is transmitted through the optic nerve on to the occipital lobe of brain where optical cortex is located and where somehow the act of seeing occurs . This explains the phenomenon without actually telling how exactly the act of seeing occurs if one ponders on this issue in depth.
Now let us go to a more subtle level. We know that light is a form of energy vibrating at a certain frequency which when interacting with a solid object ,gets reflected in different forms and this causes its frequency to change . Now this light falling on retina causes a electrochemical reaction to occur which gets transmitted as an impulse in the form of electrochemical reaction jumping across synapses until its gets dampened or lost somewhere in the jumble of nerves in brain and the act of seeing occurs. One can understand the difficulty in this explanation. There are many things which can not be understood . The consciousness part which is the final place where seeing occurs is not in picture so far. Apart from that at a more fundamental level or more subtle level( sukshma is correct word) the whole universe is a vibrating energy field and every gross or subtle thing is a manifestation of this energy field (occuring because of energy becoming dense and assuming forms) . Human body along with all its senses are also composed of this energy becoming gross.
The sense organs are merely the instruments through which the consciousness interacts with rest of the outer world. The sense organs carrying the information about outer world can interact with the mind ,which is the internal instrument of consciousness , by means of 5 energy interactions only viz. Sound , touch , sight, taste and smell . So at a subtle level the cosmos reveals itself by only 5 different energy forms and these are called the panch mahabhuts. And the subtle forms of these mahabhuts through which they are revealed are called 5 tanmatras . So there is Akash getting revealed by Shabd or sound, Vayu by touch,
Agni by sight, Jal by taste and Prithvi by smell. These subtle elements assume the gross counterparts which we normally percieve in the gross world of our existence by a process known as Panchikaran. In this proces the subtle forms intermix in different proportions to assume gross form. The process is described in detail in various texts ( most clearly in Panchadashi , which is considered the seminal text of advaita)
So far we have not considered the senses which percieve as obviously even they are
composed of the five elements. To understand this further we have to go to an even more subtle level. Even panch mahabhuts are not the primary elements. They are different manifestation of the basic tatva or energy form, which is known as 'prakrati'. This prakrati is inherently trigunatmac, ie it has three attributes, sat , rajas and tamas. Only a small part of this prakati manifests as the gross universe . The sat part of prakrati (which represents knowledge ), taking different mahabhuts forms the senses which percieve the world
So in essence all knowledge in the universe is interaction of energies and the ultimate knower is Purusha or the consciousness or Shiva or Parmatma or by whatever name on can call . In human beings this consciousness projects outward by means of sense organs to interact with outer word to gain knowledge. And since there are only 5 fundamental ways of interacting with outer universe there are only 5 fundamental forms of energy which can be known and these are called the panch mahabhutas.
All of this happens at a very subtle level i.e at a sub microscopic level and we confuse the gross forms of matter with what was actually meant by these terms.
In the state of samadhi a yogi is able to allign his consciousness to the subtle level and perceive the universe as interactions of different forms of energy and the world is seen as it is at the subtle level , composed of panch mahabhutas.
No comments:
Post a Comment