Space – The Fundamental Element

The five elements namely – Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Space-  are also called Pancha Mahabhuta – or the five great elements. The fifth great element is Space or “Akasha” in Sanskrit.  Akasha is the subtlest of all elements and hard to perceive for most people.  When we look up at the night sky we see a gazillion stars. In awe and wonderment of the sight of the stars we forget that they operate in the backdrop of space, which is dark and infinite and outside the grasp of our mind . Our eyes are mesmerized by the shining stars, but we miss the dark space behind.   The Earth, the solar system, this galaxy, the whole cosmos, is all held in place only by Space or Akasha.

Through yogic practices we can observe the effect of the five elements in our system – which in itself is like a mini cosmos.  We also know that we can cleanse and purify the other elements using various techniques.  However, space is  already pure and nothing needs to be done to cleanse it.  Therefore it is “The Fundamental Element”.  The other elements just play upon it.

Even though this “Space” is empty it has a certain intelligence.  We can tune ourselves to this intelligence by the keeping the other four elements in balance. Often we notice that certain people are just thrown around by life while things just come easy for certain others.  But if we learn to tune ourselves to this larger intelligence, life will seem like a gentle breeze. An intelligence that is beyond our current state of perception becomes available to us if this element comes into our awareness and becomes part of day to day life.

A simple way to get the cooperation of Akasha or Space in our life is to do the following

1) In the morning, before the sun crosses the 30-degree angle from the horizon, look up at the sky once and bow down to it for holding you in place today.

2) Sometime during the day, after the sun crosses 30 degrees, look up and bow down gain.

3) After the sun sets, once again look up and bow down for holding you in place for today