Whether it is the individual human body or the larger cosmic body, essentially, they are made of five elements, the panchabhuta ^ earth, water, fire, air and space. In this, the first four are active participants and space is the catalytic force.

What you call “myself” is just a mischief of these five elements. To realise the full potential of this mechanism that you call a human being, or to transcend this one and become one with the larger, cosmic mechanism — whether your desire is for the individual or for the universal — you need to have a certain amount of mastery over these five elements consciously or unconsciously, to know either the pleasure of the individual self or the blissfulness of the cosmic being.

The fundamental sadhana in yoga is to gain mastery over these five elements or to purify the elements in the system in such a way that they cooperate; this is bhuta shuddi. If these five elements don’t cooperate, you can struggle as much as you want, nothing happens. Only with their cooperation, from the basic aspects to the highest aspect, your life becomes a possibility. The human system is like a doorway. If you are always facing closed doors, for you doors mean that which stop you. If doors are opening up for you, then for you a door means the possibility of entering into something. In either case, it is the same door; which side of the door you are on decides everything about your life, even in terms of time and space. Whether you experience this body as a great possibility or a great barrier simply depends on the extent to which these five elements are cooperating. Full News