Sadhguru reveals different facets of the most elusive of the five elements – akash.
Questioner: Sadhguru, is akash a physical part of the creation that has been created by Shiva?
Sadhguru: Shiva has always been described as the destroyer, so do not blame him for creation. All the “troubles” are because of creation. Everything ends with destruction. So, your basic question is, “Is akash physical?” Akash is one of the elements of creation, so it has to be physical. It is the last fringe of physicality.
Between earth, water, air, and fire, there is a transition from gross to subtle. Akash is the last frontier of the physical, in a way. Or another way of looking at it is, akash is the basis of the other four elements. It is from akash that the other four elements have come. In a way it is the element. It is very much physical, but not in the way you normally experience physical. Everything that is physical has the element of akash; otherwise, without the play of the five elements, no physicality can happen.
The involvement of akash in the making of the physical may vary from substance to substance, from person to person, and from life to life. In each substance, the five elements are present in different proportions, or in different levels of involvement. That is what makes one substance so different from the other. That goes for akash too. The level of involvement of akash in a given substance or person is very unique and different from person to person, and from substance to substance.
If we started looking at the level of involvement of akash in a given substance or person and how to measure it, people would become unnecessarily judgmental. If it is not experientially alive within you, to intellectually say that one person’s akash is a little better than another person’s akash, and based on that assume that one human being is a little better than the other human being – these kinds of judgments would be way off the mark. So it is not necessary to go into it.
Questioner: Are there spaces in the universe where there is no akash, just empty space? Is that what we call Shiva?
Sadhguru: Yes. As akash moves away, it becomes subtler. Definitely, there are spaces without akash. Akash is not all-pervasive, but it occupies a huge space, where in human experience, we almost tend to think it is everywhere. But it is not so – a large part of space has no akash. In fact, a large part of space has no presence of any of the five elements.
Scientists are saying that cobras and other snakes have some kind of infrared vision. That means they are able to perceive subtler dimensions of life. A cobra can see beyond akash during the daytime. We are all able to see akash in the day. You cannot see it in the night – that is why you are able to see the stars. In a way, the cobra can see the stars in the daytime because its vision is able to penetrate through akash.
Akash is a web of a certain element that refracts light in a certain way and creates an illusory canopy around us. The sky is blue because of the akash and the way it is refracting light [1]. For something to refract light, it has to be physical in nature. If it was not physical, there would be no refraction. Refraction means that a certain deflection of light is happening.
So, the spaces beyond akash, are they empty? No, there is no such thing as empty space in the universe. That is a completely wrong perception. If you want to call the spaces without akash Shiva, you can because “Shiva” means that “which is not.” We are referring to a dimension beyond physicality as Shi-va because that which is beyond physicality naturally implies that there is no presence of the five elements in that region.
