Energy Is Mass. Energy is Thought. Energy is Breath. Energy is All. Universal Energy exists in 120 element types arising as combinations of the 5 basic energies or the 5 Elementals. These 5 Elementals of the Universe are termed in Yoga Pancha Mahabhuta, or the Pancha Tattva/ 5 Elementals, namely the Solid, Liquid, Pure Energy, Gaseous and Plasma. Out of Pure Energy, comes the four forms of matter in the Universe as we know it. This physical architecture of the Universe is mapped and reflected on Earth and in humans.
The Universe and the human mind-body complex, being formed as combinations of these 120 elements, it is but natural that the one who has control over the 5 Elements within the mind will be able to have reflexive control over the 5 Elements that comprise the body as well as projective control over the elements in the world outside the body.
Now, we had mentioned that the elements are also thought, elements being, like thought, energy patterns. So, that means through thought you can control the elements and through elements, you can control thought. What it also means is that our anger, happiness, joy, anxieties, depression, etc. are all due to elemental combinations of different types. Similarly, our behaviour and perception of the world we live in, our intellectual and instinctive faculties, our body types are all manifestations of the unique elemental combinations of energies that we are composed of.
To gain a clearer understanding of how the 5 Elementals influence our mental processes, the main subject of this article, we need to relate the Elementals to their Cognitive, Affective-Conative and Behavioural aspects, or Jnana, Iccha and Kriya, as they are termed in Yoga.
Modern psychology, a pseudoscience at best, freely categorises humans into around 16 personality types[ Briggs Myers’ 16 personality types]. That is, to see things in perspective, every one of the 7 billion + complex human beings are supposed to all fall neatly into one of 16 personality boxes.
Not taking into consideration the immense complexity of the body-mind complex, according to modern psychology a human is what he does- a functional animal little different from a machine and in many circumstances less efficient than machines.
But according to Yoga psychology, a human is whatever he WANTS to become, he can do WHATEVER he wants to and he can FEEL and THINK unto infinite horizons. This free ranging potential in human is seen by Yoga and not by modern psychology because of the disconnection between the pseudo science of modern psychology and the ‘hard science’ or true science of pure physics, chemistry and biology. If it were not so, modern psychology would start from the elemental combinations of the interstellar matter that go into the making of humans. The psychologist would understand that thought cannot be separated from its process and the process is dependent upon the interaction between the elementals that make up our brain, our body, this planet and the Universe, the 120 elements coming out of exploded stars.
Know the unique combination of the elementals that go into each unique human and by knowing the system of inter-elemental interactions, the Yogic psychologist is enabled to perceive the unique personality of the subject. Knowing the unique elemental combination of the subject, the Yogic psychologist is also able to perceive the unique process, cognitive, behavioural and emotional, by which the subject may achieve Elemental Compliment.
When the Elemental Complement is achieved, there will be an appreciable and patent transformation in the cognitive, behavioural and emotional persona of the subject-he/ she will be enabled to do more, know more and feel more.
This then, self-willed evolution if you will, lies at the centre of living Yoga, vast as the Universe that is reflected in its ever-growing sentience.