Whether it is the individual human body or the larger cosmic body, essentially, they are made of five elements – EARTH, WATER, FIRE, AIR and SPACE. In this, the first four elements are the active participants – space is the catalytic force.
It is in the lap of this boundless space that these four elements play the game.
These are the five elements of nature which define our journey in life.
The one question which has reigned supreme in man’s consciousness is that of existence and its own origin.
The aim of such questions has always been to understand, what are we made of and how can we awaken to our true self. The Jagran Calendar attempts to walk this evolutionary path of awakening every year.
The Question remains the same “What is awakening”, the answers…they keep evolving.
.:: JAGRAN CALENDAR 2017 ::.
I can taste the salt of the ocean; feel the heat in the air,
See the vast earth and space stretching beyond
And I can see the horizon where they become one
The mind wanders far and wide
Yet everything always has a familiar smell
It’s as if all this is a part of me and I am a part of all this
I am the fire which burns, the air which cools and the rain falling on me,
I am the earth I stand on and the space I float in
I am the universe
And the universe is me…
Un-understandable, un-imaginable, un-bearable
The chaos around me is a thirst un-quenchable.
The Spiral of my being inverts on itself, leaving my soul helpless.
Dreams no longer visit me as if they can’t imagine themselves into existence anymore.
My feet don’t take me to unknown lands as if the freshness of the wind pulls them no more.
The vastness of ocean and the rise of mountains don’t seem to inspire me now.
If I’m asleep, then this is a nightmare
If not, then this reality must be a lie
I need to wake up. I need to realize.
I must awaken!
I met an old man in a forest
His eyes were ash, his skin was coal
Wherever he walked trees burned and earth turned black
Withered and crumbled he looked at me with his sharp gaze
I felt the heat. I felt the pain.
The all-consuming forest fire kept looking at me,
I realized that he was none other than myself on fire.
“All of me have been burned to ashes
Still the hunger of my anger doesn’t end…
Consumed with wrath I devour all...”
One night I saw a burning candle with children playing around
Their mother cooking a meal on a small fire
They looked at me and smiled with love.
They were my family, waiting for my return.
I stared at the candle. I looked at the stove.
I am the fire that gives light and warmth to my family
It was time.
Time to channelize my Fire...
This is an awakening
Parched earth is in need of rain,
Yet the sky is relentlessly merciless.
A Tsunami on the other side swells up large,
Waiting to crash a shore unaware.
The frozen glacier is unyielding.
Not even a drop it gives to the river which once ran.
“Be like water” they said. “Be what you want”, they said.
I am water. I am what I want.
But, I have become death. I have become chaos.
When did I become this? Is water not life?
Always changing and becoming what the world needs it to be…
Slowly a drop melts from the glacier and enters the drying river.
A drop leaves the giant wave refusing to destroy the shore
While a drop falls from the sky as an answer to the prayers of earth.
“Be like water” they said. “Be what you want”, they said.
I am water. And I am what the world needs.
I am the master of water.
This is an awakening.
Never am I bound to one place
Never am I bound to one life
I do not belong to any and no-one belongs to me
None can hold my being and none can stop my speed
I am everywhere. Yet I stay no where
I am air.
Yes I am free.
But I am also alone.
With none to call my own.
Then one day I feel someone pulling me towards him.
A small boy with a kite and a thread.
The kite soaring inside the vastness of me, playing with me
Then, there was another and then another.
Soon there were thousands of them.
Pulling me to them and jumping with joy and laughter.
And I was with them all.
I am air. I am free.
But I am not alone. With so many to call my own.
This is an awakening
Like a mountain I stand
Solid and strong
No force can move me.
Same trees grow on me, with same birds and animals.
They call me stubborn, old and rigid
But I know this is safe.
Why should I move when there are so many depending on me?
I am like earth. Why should I change?
But I am unhappy. There is no movement. Nothing is ever new.
Then one day a bird came with a strange seed in its beak
Soon a new plant tried to take roots on me.
I resisted, because change can be dangerous.
Yet the roots tried to become a part of me.
And I couldn’t let it die. I am earth.
I let it grow. Soon a new tree stood, grand and strong.
A new idea, a new beginning.
I am the master of earth. This is an awakening
How do I describe myself?
It’s not very difficult, but it’s not very easy either.
You can look into my infinite vastness but you may find nothing to look at.
Yet in me I hold everything you have ever seen or heard of.
I am intangible, strange and confusing.
I am space.
What is inside me, many are unable to understand.
This emptiness looms over me too.
Like a dark shadow from my one infinite edge to another.
Suddenly I thought I saw something,
A flash of light?
Then there was a faint sound. Growing into a thunder.
In the emptiness and amidst all the confusion,
Came a small imagination.
Tiny but ever growing. Slowly taking its own unique shape.
If I am space then this is my story of creation.
From nothing comes everything. From confusion comes imagination.
I am the master of space. This is an awakening
The fire which once burned everything, I tamed it to provide warmth and light
Water which destroyed, I reformed it to bring life
Anchorless Air got new strings to connect to
Earth which resisted, I softened to bear new roots
The empty vast black space became a perfect canvas to paint something new
These are nothing but the five elements forming me
I mastered them one by one, and mastered them all.
In chaos these five destroy each other
In harmony they become one
This is a new life.
This is a true Awakening!
