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Index Page
by Jayaram V
Akasa means the sky, the space, the one without a body. It is also
used to refer
the fifth element, the other four being, the earth, the
air, the water and the fire. It is the stuff of which gods and
celestial beings are made. It is also the stuff of the souls. It is
immortal, indivisible, infinite and indestructible. It is the finest and subtlest of all the elements. The earth,
the water, the air and fire may be effected by other elements when
they come into contact with each other. But akasa is the purest of
them all. It is beyond the grasp of the senses and untainted by other
elements. Ether acts as the medium through which sound (dvhavni)
travels. It is the medium through which we can communicate with gods
using sound vibrations, caused by the chanting of the mantras or
sacred syllables.
Vedic seers believed in the existence of three worlds, bhur, bhuva
and svar. Bhur was the earth, bhuva was the sky or antariksh, the
middle region and svar was the the highest, the heavenly world of
radiance. It was in the sky that gods displayed their awesome power.
From the sky, they showered the rains, causing vegetation and floods.
At times they sent down meteors and lightning causing fear and
destruction. It was in the sky, Indra, the mighty god fought with
Vrata (dark clouds) and released the cows (waters) for the welfare of
the mankind. For the Vedic people the sky was the meeting ground
between men and gods and also the play ground where they displayed
their awesome power, after which they retired to the svargalok, their world of
radiance, the highest world. The also believed that
after death men ascended to the world of gods and ancestors through
the sky.
The Vaisheshikas believed that akasa was also a padartha (something
which can be thought and named). Of the six or seven categories of
padarthas they identified1, they
included it under the category of substances (dravyas) along with
eight other, namely earth, water, light, air, time, space, soul and
manas (mind). Of these akasa, time and space are all pervading.
According to the Vaisheshikas, akasa is not ethereal but a kind of
material which is continuous, inactive (niskriya) and infinite. It is
devoid of the qualities of taste, smell, touch and color, but sound is
its distinguishing quality. The atoms which are small and of which the
substances are made of cannot by themselves come together. They
aggregate but not continuously. If they stand apart from one another
and yet form into substances, it is because they are bound by akasa.
It
fills the space between one atom and another and holds them together
in their aggregate form. Akasa is also a kind of substance but it is not atomic in nature, that
is, it is not made of atoms. It is boundless and eternal. Akasa
and space are not one and the same. Akasa fills space. While Akasa is
the material cause of sound, space is the general cause of all
effects.
Akasa also several qualities of infinite Brahman. Like Brahman it
is mysterious, formless, boundless, infinite, indestructible, beyond
the mind and the senses and incomprehensible to the ordinary
intellect. It envelops everything and exists in them also. It is
smaller than the smallest and larger than the largest. It is all
pervading and provides nourishment by sending down rain and radiance.
Hence symbolically, Lord Vishnu, as preserver and Supreme Lord of the
universe is depicted as blue in color, which is the color of the sky.
Aditi the mother of all gods and Brahma are also compared to the sky
and extolled in the vedic hymns as boundless beings and upholders of
all.
Suggested Further Reading
Footnotes
1 The six categories of
padarthas identifed by them are dravya (substance), guna (quality),
karma (activity), samanya (commonality), visesa (specificity) and
samavaya (inherence). To these the later Vaisheshikas added abhava
(non-existence).
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