Why elements need cleansing

Question: You have said that most basic form of yoga is bhuta shuddhi or cleansing of the elements within the system. If the elements are the fundamental building blocks that everything is made of, how can they become impure?  

Sadhguru: If you pick up some water from the gutter, you may think it is impure, but it is not. Actually, it is more conducive for life—many lives—than the so-called pure water. If you take gutter water, there is much more life in it than the water you drink from the bottle. It is just that it is not conducive for you. In human understanding, in our language, we express it like this—only that which is conducive for us, we call that pure water. Gutter water is very pure for many, many lives. With the so-called pure water, you killed all that life. All those other creatures do not think your bottled water is pure water. They think it is lifeless water.  

So, when we refer to the elements, we are speaking in the context of what is more conducive for us. In that context, we need to purify the elements. These five elements have to play so much mischief and take on trillions of manifestations. It would not be possible if they did not acquire other qualities or possibilities. They are naturally receptive in nature. The air that you breathe, the food that you eat, the water that you drink—let’s leave out the other two because they are not in your experience much—can be influenced with just thought, emotion, intention or energy. 

Freedom from Karmic Substance
The five elements within you that make this body are deeply influenced. A layer of information, generally referred to as the karmic substance, gathers. Without it, the elements would not behave in a particular way within you. Every human being would have been the same if there was no specific information. 
For example, let’s say a woman eats a banana. In a few hours, the banana becomes a woman. If a man eats the banana, it becomes a man. If a cow eats it, it becomes a cow. It is the same banana. The banana is not so intelligent to make itself into a man, woman, cow or whichever animal consumes it. It is a certain amount of information within you, which transforms a banana into a woman or a man or a cow or whatever. What you call as “myself”, is essentially a certain volume of information. And the fundamental way that it is stuck on to you is through the elements because there is nothing here apart from the elements. 

Cleansing the elements is about making them free of the accumulated information or karmic substance. If this is not done, you will be a strong individual but you will never know how to breach the boundary that you have set for yourself. This is not a boundary set by the existence. This is a boundary that you have set for yourself. If you cannot cross the boundary that you set up, that is a foolish way to live. You set up a boundary without knowing why and you can’t cross it after sometime and you start claiming “This is how I am!” This is a common statement you hear everywhere. If you ask somebody to cross some limitation, they say, “No! This is how I am.” This is not how you are, this is what you made yourself to be. 
So, purification essentially is in the context of human beings, not in terms of the element itself. 
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a bestselling author. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2017.

Isha.sadhguru.org

Cleansing the elements is about making them free of the accumulated information or karmic substance. If this is not done, you will be a strong individual but you will never know how to breach the boundary that you have set for yourself.