PANCHABOOTHA KRIYA: Is it effective ??
What is panchabootha kriya ?
The word pancha bootha means five elements. five elements here refers to air, water, fire, earth and space. From times immemorial all the seers and their writings have profoundly and unanimously accepted that everything in nature is comprised of these five elements. these five elements are the primordial pillars sustaining life and the infrastructure we live in. As is the universe, so is the body is a base philosophy and truth accepted even by modern science. there are in-numerous yoga sutras and works related to medicine by ancient seers referring to the importance of balance in these five elements in human body to live a healthy and sound life. Hence number of seers have given various types of procedures and clarity on the same. These practices are even seen in modern days.
Given the introduction to what panchabootha kriya is, let us know understand how it works. All the procedures given by ancient masters in regarding to panchabootha kriya takes only elemental composition of the body. It is not that they have given an incomplete procedure but they have divided into various segments, for instance a panchabootha kriya in any text will only follow after a prana shudhi or purification of breathe and aasanas i.e sitting postures. In reality what happens is that people take only the interesting part therefore leaving the front and back story. Taking this middle order and practicing and expecting the results mentioned in texts could become unrealistic because the person who wrote the text would have mentioned the benefits based on his sequence not how we take it. So any benefits mentioned in any text is not solely based on a particular thing but the whole sequence.
Panchabootha as an aspect
Understanding Panchaboothas or five elements as an aspect is very important. To put these in simple perspectives, five elements are like pillars of an infrastructure. Just because the pillars are well preserved that doesnt mean the building is strong and can last long in balance. At the sametime pillars also play a vital role in the buildings strength. So it is very necessary to understand that all the five elemental balance is just an aspect and not a holistic picture. There are other powerful entities which can disrupt the elemental balance. One such powerful entity is our mind, another could be our food habits. These are just few but in reality there are many things which can disrupt the flow. Human body itself is a continual process, it is never the same always. We keep changing according to our age, environment and other factors.
Practising panchabootha kriya
There is nothing wrong in panchabootha kriya specifed by a guru or text, but the important thing is the understanding. We should always understand the amount of attention needed for a particular practise and the purpose. In simple words a people think that even a small practice like pranayama is something great in mysticism, unfortunately these are just basics in the road to union. It is more like a cooking no particular practise is superior we just need the whole dish to taste better.I would say panchabootha kriya is more effective only when practised on full moon day or new moon day. To look in with a mature eyes, panchabootha in itself has a lot of paradox. fire does not compliment water, earth doesnt compliment space, water doesnt compliment air. So there cannot be balance as whole in a daily basis only if there is a raise in any of the proportions we should balance there is no need of daily balance as they will not be. In simple terms if you keep balancing daily the food habits will be impeded and therefore you may become malnutritious. Just because of panchabootha kriya blood profile will not be balanced, because all this prone, pancha bootha, vridhi, dharana all happens to sookshma sharira and not this Sthula sharira (normal body)