Panchikarana - The Fivefold Combination of Elements

The pancha mahabhuta — space, air, fire, water, and earth — first arise in subtle form (tanmatra). But how do these subtle elements become the tangible universe of bodies and objects we experience? Vedanta answers with the teaching of panchikarana (pañcīkaraṇa), the “fivefold combination” or grossification of elements.

The process begins with Brahman in association with maya. Maya, composed of the three gunas, projects the subtle elements. Each subtle element is pure, possessing only its own primary quality (e.g., space = sound, air = touch, etc.). Through panchikarana, these subtle elements combine so that every gross element contains half of its own subtle essence plus one-eighth from each of the other four. Earth, for example, is half subtle earth plus fractions of water, fire, air, and space. This explains why every object in the world is a mixture — nothing is “pure fire” or “pure water.”

From A Conversation with an Atheist by the author

This doctrine shows that creation is not chaotic but ordered. Each gross object we perceive is infused with all five elements in varying proportions. The human body, likewise, is a composite of all five, sustained by them and returning to them upon death. The teaching’s purpose is not scientific description, but spiritual: to show that all forms are combinations, temporary and dependent, while the Self is ever independent of them.

By understanding panchikarana, the seeker gains clarity about the insubstantial nature of the world. What seems solid and unique is actually a rearrangement of the same fivefold elements, themselves projections of maya. The universe, in all its vastness and variety, is nothing but Brahman appearing through name and form.

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Root & Meaning

• Pañca = five

• Karaṇa = making, effecting, combining

• Pañcīkaraṇa = the fivefold combination or grossification of elements.

Scriptural References

The panchikarana doctrine is not found in the major Upanishads themselves. Its systematic form appears in later Advaita manuals such as Vedanta Sara and the short treatise Panchikarana (traditionally attributed to Shankara, though likely composed later). The method parallels Samkhya’s theory of elemental evolution, which Advaita seems to have borrowed and reinterpreted. In Vedanta, however, panchikarana is not an ontological claim but a pedagogical tool, used to highlight the dependent and composite nature of the physical world.

Traditional View

• The subtle elements (tanmatras) first arise from maya.

• Through panchikarana, they combine into gross elements (sthula bhuta).

• Each gross element is thus half of its own subtle form and one-eighth of each of the other four.

• This mixture explains the diversity and cohesion of the physical world .

Vedantic Analysis

• The panchikarana doctrine shows the dependence of forms: nothing exists independently, all are composites.

• The body too is only a temporary mixture, returning to elements at death.

• The elements themselves are mithya — dependent appearances in awareness.

• The teaching reveals Brahman as the substratum: the unchanging reality behind the combinations.

• While panchikarana is formally a teaching device in Advaita Vedanta, it also offers a strikingly elegant vision of the cosmos: that the infinite variety of forms arises from a simple, orderly combination of five elemental essences. This simplicity makes it both pedagogical and cosmological — a bridge between spiritual insight and the experience of the physical world.

Common Misunderstandings

• That panchikarana is literal physics: It is a teaching model, not a scientific explanation.

• That elements are independent substances: In Vedanta, they are appearances of maya, not absolute.

• That the doctrine is dualistic: It ultimately points to Brahman as the sole reality.

Vedantic Resolution

Panchikarana shows that the manifest world is nothing but a fivefold rearrangement of elements projected by maya. Recognizing this reduces attachment to name-form and prepares the mind for Self-knowledge: the discovery that I am not a composite, but pure consciousness.