Water, earth, air, fire,…all are intelligent!
By Vivek Sharma
Why do you say the fire, the water, the air, the space and the earth are intelligent? This is the question people ask and demand proof of.
Well, there is no harm in asking for proofs, but one shouldn’t dismiss old Indian wisdom as trash. You need to be open to the principles detailed by the Indian Rishis in order to understand these principles and their application. Let’s understand what is what.
What is intelligence?
The quality of a person or a matter which gives it a direction and purpose, is called intelligence. Direction is nothing but a process from something to something else, from one state to the second state and from the second to the third….The purpose of this direction may differ from element to element, matter to matter, animal to animal, atom to atom, but none can violate the very basic principle of intelligence. Let’s understand the phenomenon of direction first. There is one state and then there is another state towards which something moves. This movement grossly involves a subtle process of energy transaction. That can be simplified as reception and transmission, cause and effect, gathering and dispersal, creation and dissolution—you can name this process any which way you want to but the basic principle will remain unaltered—energy transaction through reception and transmission.
Krishna says, भूतानां अस्मि चेतना, I am Intelligence, consciousness, life in the five elements. He is referring to the five elements of which we all are made of!
The Air
The air is nothing but a form of energy in motion. So far we have a limited understanding of the word vayu. We understand it as praanvayu, the oxygen, the air. Vayu is maarut. Maarut is the energy which moves from one place to the other in a particular direction and gathers along with it more energy till the purpose has been achieved. It disperses harmonically once the purpose has been achieved. It blows from one place to the other and sometimes in circles—clockwise or anti-clockwise. This proves that it has a direction and since it has a direction, it has to have a purpose too. It is a different matter that we cannot understand its purpose. But, let me give you a crude example. The monsoon cannot happen if, the vayu had no purpose . The trees, animals, including you won’t have survived had the maarut not infused the air with oxygen. Definitely, the air energy has a purpose and direction and hence it is intelligent. No wonder Krishna says भूतानां अस्मि चेतना, I am Intelligence, consciousness, life in the five elements.
The Water
It has a direction and purpose too. It flows from higher levels and collects at the lower levels. Its purpose understandably is irrigation, quenching thirst etc. Every harmonal and nourishing agent in the body is basically a purposeful variant of itself through energy transaction. This includes your hormones, energising sap of trees etc. But, all these purposes are just part of the the basic purpose it serves. They all have been found out by men as per the principle of demand and utility. It plays an important role in maintaining weather cycles, as do the air, the fire, the space and the earth too. So every element has a particular direction of energy transaction and hence multiple purposes leading to the final one. They are intelligent. No wonder Krishna says भूतानां अस्मि चेतना, I am Intelligence, consciousness, life in the five elements.
The Brain
The brain too replicates the same principle in a more complex way. It receives and transmits neural energy, triggered by outside suggestions evoking images and experiences in the memory. After the outside suggestion has been identified on the basis of the memory inputs, the transmission of identity and corresponding response is relayed to the entire body mind system. Basically one form of energy is being received and converted into a multiplicity of a response by the brain through the sea of memory. This entire process runs on the same principle—-reception and transmission. Reception is focal and transmission is just the opposite of it. The same principle is followed by the heart, the kidney, the lungs and the cells. All are intelligent. We only need to know how. They are intelligent. No wonder Krishna says भूतानां अस्मि चेतना, I am Intelligence, consciousness, life in the five elements.