• Posted by: Aparna
• 06 February 2024

What Is Our Body Made Up Of!

Let's start an interesting journey of exploring the constituents of our body  

If we asked a medical professional the most natural answer would be - 

A human body is made up of fat, water, bone, muscle, skin, and other lean tissues, etc Slightly deeper definition of body composition would be - our body is composed of carbon, calcium, potassium, and hydrogen at the atomic level, at the molecular level by amounts of water, protein, and fat, at the cellular level with extracellular fluid and body cell mass; and at the tissue level for amounts and distributions of adipose. Sounds very scientific and logical indeed, but should we stop here!

No, let's go down deeper, we just learnt in the previous note that we are a microcosm of the macrocosm so how do we relate to that now?

One of the oldest texts of ancient medical science Ayurveda says - Body is made up of PanchBhoot - which means the five manifestations of nature - 

• Earth
• Space, Ether or Sky
• Air
• Water
• Fire

From the above the first two - Earth and Space do not have a specific set value meaning there is no defined parameter of their existence in a body.

1. Earth - This is a gross  expression amongst the five elements, it defines structure, one could be tall, short, stout, thin as long as strong and stable. It is the basic foundation and support for the other four elements. Muscles, bones, teeth, tendons etc arise from this element. We use this element to help us be grounded, focus, inner stability, the objective of this physical body to connect with our inner mind. 
2. Space, Ether or Sky -This is the element which holds the existence of this physical body and allows it to be in action. Hollow cavities in our Ears, nose, space between organs, within the body. There also exists space outside of us an through which we relate to sound, air and awareness. This is most subtle and connects us to higher levels of consciousness.

Now within the physical body the Earth element exists, the remaining three which flow, move, act to govern within our body as energy patterns, governing our thoughts and actions. 

3. Air -This is our life force, what we breathe, which governs every movement and circulation of our body. Every cell breathes oxygen along with the nervous system which is also managed by this element. Memory is dependent on air channel of our body, it is also involved in sensitivity to our environment and governs sensory organ skin by sense of touch.
4. Fire - This is the transforming element of our body. This is responsible for digestion in totality, absorption of nutrients and essentially heat energy in the body.
5. Water -This element is the fluidity within the body with  primary qualities as - Slow, soft, moist, smooth, oily cool and heavy. Water is seen as the fluids of the body as blood, saliva, mucus, etc. It facilitates hormones, waste, nutrients etc transportation throughout the body. It governs the taste in the tongue through saliva. On a higher dimension it helps develop cohesiveness as water being the universal solvent.

Lets take a pause here and absorb this interesting dimension about our body, more to follow!