Ayurveda Concepts.

Creation of the Universe: Five ElementsKapila, the founder of Sankhya philosophy, outlined five elements in the creation of the universe: Purusha, Prakruti, Mahad, Buddhi, and Ahamkar.

According to Sankhya, Purusha is male energy. Prakruti is female energy. Purusha is formless, colorless, beyond attributes, and it takes no active part in creation. This energy is choiceless, passive awareness. Prakruti yields form, color, and attributes in the field of action. It is awareness with choice, Divine Will, the One who desires to become many. The universe is the child born out of the womb of Prakruti, the Divine Mother. Prakruti creates all forms in the universe, whereas Purusha is the witness to this creation. Purusha and Prakruti merge together to bring cosmic order, or Mahad (also called universal intelligence). Within Mahad, or universal intelligence, a center arises and from that center, Buddhi, the individual's intellect, is created. Intelligence is a universal phenomenon; intellect is individual. The radius from the Buddhi center creates a small enclosure, a circle. The center of that circle is called Ahamkar—the ego, the feeling of “I am.”
This feeling of “I am” further manifests through three universal qualities that pervade all creation:

1.attva is the pure essence of light, right action, and spiritual purpose. On the universal level, sattva is vast clear space in the universe; on the individual level, sattva is the clarity of perception.

2.ajas is the principle of movement. On the universal level, rajas is atmosphere; on the individual level, rajas is the movement of perception, which becomes attention.

3.amas is the principle of inertia and darkness. On the universal level, tamas is the body of the planet solidity in all of nature; on the individual level, tamas is precipitation of perception, which is experience. Without tamas, there is no experience.According to Ayurveda, these three universal qualities influence both our minds and bodies.

Rajas is the active vital life force in the body that moves both the organic and inorganic universal aspects to sattva and tamas, respectively. Therefore, sattva and tamas are inactive potential energies that require the active kinetic force of rajas. As a result of the influence of the three universal qualities, the five senses (hearing, touch, vision, taste, and smell), the five motor organs (mouth, hands, feet, reproductive organs, and excretory organs), and the mind are differentiated as parts of the organic universe. The five objects of perception (sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell) and the five basic elements (space, air, fire, water, and earth) are parts of the inorganic universe.

Inorganic Universe
An Ayurvedic principle states that all organic and inorganic substances are made up of the five basic elements: space, air, fire, water, and earth.

SPACE
Within the body, each cell occupies space. Through the cellular space, cells communicate with one another. There is a continuous flow of intelligence between every cell. Every cell is a center of awareness; every cell has a mind and has the ability to choose what it ingests and what it expels. Therefore, space, which is the first expression of consciousness, is the basic need of the bodily cells. Even modern physics states that matter is that which occupies space. Thus, the development of matter begins with space.

AIR
The flow of consciousness, from one cell to another cell in the form of intelligence, is called prana, the principle of the air element. Prana is a vital life force that is essential for communication on all levels of body, mind, and spirit. The air element is necessary for all subtle and gross movement within the cell, within each organ, and within the physical body as a whole. In other words, sensory stimuli and motor responses are the subtle movements of the air principle. Even the movements of the heart, respiration, peristalsis, and other involuntary movements are governed by prana.

FIRE
The fire element manifests as the metabolic processes regulating the transformation of food into energy. All transformative processes are governed by the fire element. The fire element is responsible for governing body temperature and the processes of digestion, absorption, and assimilation of food. Essential to these transformation processes are gastric action, hydrochloric acid, digestive enzymes, liver enzymes, and the amino acids present in every cell. Even within each of the doors of perception—eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin—there is a subtle fire component that is necessary for sensory perception and processing these perceptions into knowledge.

WATER
Water is necessary in the human body for assimilation and for maintaining electrolyte balance. The blood in our bodies is composed of 90% water, and this water carries nutrients from one part of the body to the other. Oxygen, food particles, and the molecules of minerals are carried from one cell into another cell, from one system to another system, by this continuous river of fluid, the blood plasma. This is the Water of Life.

EARTH
From Earth, all organic living bodies, including humans, are created. The solid structures of the body—hard, firm, and compact tissues (e.g., bones, cartilage, nails, hair, teeth, and skin)—are derived from the Earth. Earth also contains the inorganic substances that constitute the mineral kingdom.