Tattva 32 — Space (Ākāśa)
Space itself: the subtlest great element, the open room in which all things exist.
Ākāśa is the gross element of space (or 'ether') — the first and subtlest of the five great elements that make up the physical world. It is the all-pervading openness in which everything else has room to be, and the medium that carries sound. As the most rarefied of the elements, it stands at the top of the material world, unfolding from the subtle element of sound.
Key passages(10)
'Ether (or space) is better than fire. For in the ether exist both sun and moon, the lightning, stars, and fire (agni). Through the ether we call, through the ether we hear, through the ether we answe
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Yagnavalkya said: 'That of which they say that it is above the heavens, beneath the earth, embracing heaven and earth, past, present, and future, that is woven, like warp and woof, in the ether.' Garg
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He replied: "The ether is that god, the wind, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, eye, and ear. These, when they have manifested (their power), contend and say: We (each of us) support this body and kee
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Bhumi (earth), Ap (water), Anala (fire), Vâyu (air), Kha (ether), mind, intellect, and egoism: thus is My Prakriti divided eight-fold.
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The earth and its subtile elements, the water and its subtile elements, the light and its subtile elements, the air and its subtile elements, the ether and its subtile elements; the eye and what can b
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