Mother earth, mantra and the pancha bhutas
The Adiveda Weekly #2
Hari Aum Sadhakas!
We hope you’re doing well. For the next five weeks, we’ll take up each of the five elements that make up every single speck in creation starting with the ‘earth.’ Should you have any questions, please do feel free to reply to this email.
The Hindu way of life
The entire cosmic creation begins with the Pancha Bhutas or the five elements. Whether it is the individual human body or the larger cosmic body, essentially, they are made up of five elements or the Pancha Mahabhutas – earth, water, fire, air and space (prithvi, apas, agni, vayu and akasha).
Today we will be taking the earth element which is the very basis of our physicality.
Whenever you eat food, you are actually swallowing a part of the earth. The earth element is essential for us to sustain our body. Consequently, how we treat the planet is a measure of how we treat our own bodies!
There is a deep understanding in the Hindu culture that the earth is the mother. We are born of the earth. Our biological mother is only a representative who is also born of the same earth. The real mother is the soil that we carry as our bodies and which we eat as our food that sustains our bodies.
Reflection of the week
“Bhagavan is neither inside creation nor outside creation. HE IS creation. That is why Hindus worship the trees, animals, the sun and the moon as Bhagavan. For nothing can exist apart from HIM.”
For your everyday practice
We are taught to worship Mother Earth or prithvi as soon as we get up. We touch the earth with our right hand and place it on our head in an act of worship and repeat this mantra.
“Samudra vadane Devi, Parvata sthana mandale,
Vishnu patnir namastubhyam, Padasparsham kshamasvame.”
“O goddess who is clothed by the seas and mountains,
Consort of Vishnu! Pray forgive me for stamping on you!”
From Vanamali Mataji’s desk
In today’s feature blog, Vanamali explains that we are all made up of the five elements of ether, air, fire, water and earth. Whether we live in America or Asia, we all have the same connection to these elements. We are born of the earth and will return to the earth when we die. We breathe the same air, we enjoy the same sun and are nourished by the same water and of course we are all in that element called ether even though we are not conscious of it.
Important dates this week
New Moon on Monday, 30th May
That’s all for now. What would you like to see more of? Let us know! Thank you very much for reading.
At your service,
The Adiveda Team