The entire creation is made up of five elements - the five elements and five sense organs.

Chapter 9 - Eliminating The Cause Of Pain 

Day 72 

The world which is seen is illuminated. Each thing gives you a message. It gives you an idea of how great the consciousnesses is. Every aspect in this world is an expression of consciousness and everything is active. Everything has manifested out of consciousness. 

Everything in this universe is dynamic. They are not static. Flowers come up. Mountains appear to be static but they are not. They are all dynamic. Every atom in this universe is dynamic, means everything undergoes certain stages of evolution. 

Everything has a stage, a state. And everything is governed by certain principle and qualities. The entire creation is made up of five elements - the five elements and five sense organs. These are five organs of perception and five organs of action. These are ten organs. 

The entire creation is endowed with these two and the mind. This entire creation is there to give you pleasure and relief. Whatever gives you pleasure should also give you relief. Otherwise, the pleasure becomes a pain. You may like gulab jamun. You can have one, two, three or four, then, maybe, the fifth one, becomes a little too much. And then the more you have, the greater is your discomfort. 

Something that gave you pleasure is now making you suffer. If you are forced to eat twenty apple-pies you will hold your head, and pray that you want relief from it and want to get away from them. It is the same with music. For how long can you enjoy music? One hour, two hours, or three hours if someone forces you. 

If you have to hear music for 24 hours a day and seven days a week, you will appeal to be relieved of listening to it. The wonderful music, which gave you so much pleasure, causes pain if the listening is overdone. So that has to give you relief also. 

The entire creation does give you enjoyment and liberation. You have to get yourself liberated from all these at some time or other. Otherwise, they will become a pain, the pleasure will become a pain. Then, Patanjali went on to describe the grades in this. They are sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. 

Tamasic things bring more dullness. Rajasic brings greater activity and Sattvic more light, and freedom. If you take wholesome food, it is good for your health and it gives you pleasure. But if you take drugs, they entrap you. They seem to be give pleasure to begin with but gives you only pain and suffering. And they are hard to get out of. So drugs are tamasic. 

Sattvic, tamasic, rajasic - the three grades, the whole creation is made up of these three gunas, three natures. Some foods make you duller and some more agitated. Everything arises from these three gunas. There are some specialities about each. The creation is made up of so many details.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS