The Pancha Maha Bhutas

I'd love to introduce to you today the metaphysical concept of the pancha maha bhutas, emerging to us out of Samkhya philosophy.

Pancha = five; maha = great; bhutas = elements -- thus, the "Five Great Elements" .

Samkhya is the cosmogonical view underlying the wisdom sciences of Yoga and Tantra; this framework deals with the origin of the Universe and in specific, with how Infinite Consciousness (i.e. Supreme Reality) "descends" or manifests by stages to become the apparent reality that we live in. For the yogi, understanding this is of critical importance, as Yoga deals with the reversal of all manifestation to arrive at the ultimate state of abiding in/with/as the Source. This inward journey is a reverse engineering of dualistic life to return into Oneness with Creation.

Knowledge that this is the point & goal of the path -- a return to the undivided, indivisible state of unconditioned awareness -- is an immense aid to whomever is making this journey; at the end of the day, it is the "return home" that is the final result of all spiritual paths. We are talking about a remembrance of who we really are, at our core. The moment that this realization dawns in the individual, and their limited identity dissolves by being re-united or re-aligned with the Cosmic Pattern, there is a complete re-alignment and re-attunement to what is of utmost importance. A shift in perspective is the result; we call this spiritual transformation. If/when the process is complete, then the kundalini has successfully dis-entangled Herself from being involved in the manifestation of the ahamkara (the ego), and an unobstructed energetic link will have been established between the individual soul (jivatman) and the supreme soul (paratman). I am using yogic terminology as their cosmological map has proven to be supremely accurate and effective in understanding this process.

This happens in stages. There is a progressive "descent" of undivided, perfect, infinite consciousness into the world of form. One way we can look at this is: LIGHT, or energy, or pure cosmic intelligence descends and slows down by passing through different stages of manifestation. As light slows down, it manifests into different information, or frequency, which then in-forms the world of matter. Physicists have long been stumped by the appearance of matter and the famous equation from Einstein, E=MC squared, gives us a hint to what we are referring to here. Take any matter, and bring it to the speed of light, and the apparent configuration of matter transforms back into pure energy. Slow it down and it re-configures into the design given to it by the Creator. This goes for all apparent manifestation, otherwise known as the relative reality that we all live and operate. Yet the light of consciousness is still beneath, behind, and beyond all form. There cannot be matter without the perception of matter, and the two are, interestingly, inseparable. Yet the yogi remains aware of the Light, as it is the Light (Consciousness) which is known as the causal principle -- it is this Light which in-forms, constructs, and governs the apparent reality. This appearance of things (including the world we live in, even our thoughts and experiences) are all emerging from something. That "something" is Consciousness. Do you follow?

What the spiritual path does, or is designed to do, is bring one back to the Source -- where the Light is coming in, as it is the Light which renews, regenerates, and inspires the world 'outside'. I'd like to propose the idea now that the Big Bang is not something that happened "back then", but rather is an occurrence that is happening every time a perception occurs. By these principles, we can see how we are literally manifesting our reality purely based on the perceptions we create. And let us be clear -- we are responsible for choosing our perceptions! This may be difficult to grasp and even more difficult to put into practice or embody, as much of the time our perceptions are colored, distorted or influenced by our stories, patterns, and conditioning (karmic imprints), and yet it remains a key part of the metaphysical truth that the yogis live their lives by. The path of Yoga is one in which we strive for liberation from the material world, which is to say we liberate ourselves from our minds and our stories, and thereby live in a Universe of our own magical making. This does not mean we descend into nihilism, which can be the result of half-baked understanding, but rather that we observe and study the fundamental Laws of the Universe and the Laws of Creation, which is the sacred wisdom embedded at the core of every culture, civilization and society. Everyone and everything operates according to these laws -- no one is exempt. The Universe is bound by principles of harmony and interconnected function. Even the Law of Karma is part of this delicate and yet supremely intelligent cosmic machinery. Living a life that is in alignment with the Creator -- with all of Nature, in fact -- is ultimately what we are talking about. And it is the Light of this Creator which shines through us and animates the impulses of our life. What we yogis hope to do in our study and practice is understand this "impulse of Light", and attempt to trace its origin, so that we can begin to re-align ourselves with the Light and purify all the ignorance or darkness that has us feeling separated from our Source.

Enter: the pancha maha bhutas , the Five Great Elements. This elemental model is like a clue left to us by the seers of timeless wisdom; it intersects and overlaps with the chakra system of the subtle body, based on yogic physiology. The sages experienced the descent of the light through stages in the subtle body, coming in through the crown and making its way down to the root at the tailbone (muladhara chakra). They identified that each of the elements corresponded with one of the chakras, and that each of the elements/chakras corresponded to one of the sense organs. Our organs of perception -- smell, taste, sight, touch, sound -- are the ways our organism has evolved to distinguish & interpret the relative reality that we live in. The light is diffused and configured according to these different levels of perception, much like a beam of light being refracted in a prism. In the yogic tradition, the sense organs are driven by prana, the life-force, which is a more direct manifestation of the Light. These sense organs are like the "gates" of consciousness where quantum packets of information about the Universe are brought into us, interpreted and categorized according to their pattern, and responded to based on the needs of the organism. We have to realize that we are biological machines that have evolved over millions of years AND that there is a singular Light principle that has been weaving the tapestry together since the beginning of time. Again, we are talking about the origin of life -- consciousness. Remember: it's not something that happened back then, although we can trace the clues of life to their source.

The yogis held a very important perspective : its not that the things we perceive come into our awareness, but that the light of consciousness projects itself OUT of our senses and literally reaches for, or grabs hold of, the objects & information that are immediately relevant to the biological machine that we consider to be "us" (i.e. this human meat suit). The evolutionary intelligence that keeps us alive ensures that we create and seek out patterns of living which will aid life in continuing on. Which means that we look for, and find, the information which helps us to be safe, find food, and procreate. Fundamentally, this is what we are dealing with. However, Spirit (Light; Consciousness) is in juxtaposition to this. There is a healthy tension between the spiritual realm and material realm. Why? Because life contains the innate impulse to become more than it is.

We are evolving. Consciousness, the Universe, life... it is all evolving, and with it the human species. IF we were eternally bound to being purely animals, we would not have evolved to possess to sentience that we now possess. Somehow, by some play of fate (or perhaps by the will of the intelligent design of the Universal Creator), we as humans are now capable of contemplating these "spiritual" topics; as if there is some divine game we are fated to play. It seems that way, at least to me.

So, we look to the clues left by the great masters. One of those clues is the pancha maha bhutas and how these elements direct and configure the Light principle. Earth, water, fire, air, space. We, and everything around us in the manifest realm, is a combination of these 5 elements. Our bodies and the macrocosm are like mirrors in this respect. According to Tantra, the microcosm of the human body is a direct reflection of the macrocosm of the cosmos, and that we can learn how the Universe works by looking inside and observing how it (the Universe) is working inside of us. Ultimately, we become a perfect mirror and reflection of the Greater Whole. The experience of this is one of being in alignment with the Totality of Creation. Our thoughts, words, actions, deeds, behaviors -- our very body & mind -- become merged with the Whole and we are no longer living as a separate being but rather an integrated part of the Cosmic Being. This is one of the primary definition of yoga -- union. To arrive into this state, we must seek to understand the underlying laws and patterns of Creation, which are of course manifested through our bodies, minds, and life-energies, and seek to align ourselves at all levels of perception. The technologies embedded in Yoga are a way to do this.

In a coming essay I will begin with an analysis of the root element -- Earth -- and how it manifests for us, along with what sort of practices & techniques we might use to align ourselves to it. I will also discuss some of the principles and ideas associated with the Earth element and the muladhara chakra. If this is interesting to you, stay tuned for more, or consider joining for an upcoming online course that I'll be doing on Tantrik Hatha Yoga, beginning May 13 2025. You can find more information on that here.