All ancient sciences talk of balancing of five elements of life

PANCHMAHABHUTA ( Five elements of life)

We all have heard of 5 elements Earth, water, fire, air and ether. Let us try to understand what these 5 elements imply. 

Earth (Prithvi)

Earth is the prithvitattwa. It means anything which gives stability. The element has weight, shape, size and stability. It is easy to understand like if you are sitting in a room you can see a table. A table supports everything which is kept on it. It has weight and has shape also. Similarly for a building any building material which gives stability will come in its portfolio like concrete, bricks, iron bars, heavy logs are wood will come under this. They are used for construction of a building. In our body bones or the whole skeleton system comes under Earth element. Naturally sweet elements like wheat, rice, jiggery or all staple foods are Earthy in nature. Earth element is solid and dense in nature.

Water (Jala or Apa)

Water or Jaltattwacarries weight but is not stable. It does not carry any shape and it also carries fluidity. You can see glass fill of water kept on table. Now this water has weight but does not have shape. If it is kept in some other utensil it will take its shape. Earthy elements are not so. A stone has its own shape. Also watery element has fluidity. If water is not kept in any utensil it tends to flow. Water element is not dense in nature. Blood, sweat, saliva are some of the jaltattwas in our body.

Fire (Agni or Tejas)

Fire or Agni ttawa has heat or energy. It carries no shape or size.  It is dry and rough. It radiates heat and light. Fire element is also attractive as it carries luster. Paints, nail polish, lipstick and all cosmetics fall into this category. For building construction paints and whitewash are the prime things which are used.  Also tube lights, LCD’s, bulbs fall into this category. You can see these things all around you. Food items attributed to fire element are chilies, pepper, ginger etc.

Air (Vayu)

Air or the Vayu Tattwa is noisy, cool, weightless, unstable and has movement. A piece of paper, dust, powders are the examples of Vayu Tattwa. Why Mridang, table, make sound because they have vayutattwa. Stone dust and cement are the prime examples of this Tattwa used in construction.beans, alcohol have this element in it. Bitter is the taste of this tattwa. 

Space (Akash)

Let us understand AkashTattwa or space. It is all about hollowness or which gives room or looseness or openness. Everything is contained in space. All heavenly bodies that we see in the sky are in space. You can see this tattwa is in abundance. When we have to change place we have to make room. When we have to adjust anything we need room.  Hollow foods like pop corn, catechu, fennel fall into this category.

Now let us understand practically how these elements are understood. The compound of water cannot be considered to have a single fixed elemental nature. It can have multiple elements or panchmahabhutas.  When solid and heavy (ice, snow, hail) it is Earth. When it melts due to the exposure of light and heat - fires. So it transforms to water, then evaporates and creates steam due to contact with air and fire (sunlight) and disappears into space.