Śivasaṃhitā 1.100

This verse maps the relationship between the elemental substrate and the experiencing subject. Everything that arises for bhoga — sensory experience, enjoyment, the entire phenomenal world — emerges from the bhūtapañcaka, the fivefold elemental matrix. The entity that undergoes this experience is technically designated jīva, the living individual soul.

Bhūtapañcaka names the five great elements: pṛthvī (earth), ap (water), tejas (fire), vāyu (air), and ākāśa (space/ether). Their permutations generate all gross and subtle phenomena. The phrase jīvasaṃjñitā — «designated as jīva» — is carefully chosen: the name is a label applied to pure consciousness that has become identified with elemental experience.

For the Hatha Yoga practitioner, this teaching grounds the entire physical curriculum. The gross body (sthūlaśarīra) is literally constituted by these five elements, and purification practices act upon that elemental composition. Recognizing the jīva as the experiencer of elemental reality initiates the inquiry into what lies beneath that identification.