“Akasha” is a Sanskrit word that is loosely translated as “ether”. It is the subtlest of all the five elements that go to make up this cosmos and our own bodies. According to Hinduism, the whole universe is composed of five elements of which akasha is the subtlest and hence the one that is capable of penetrating everything else. It is the omnipresent, all-penetrating existence. According to the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, akasha is one of the five Mahābhūtas (grand physical elements) having the specific property of sound.

Sometimes it is translated as “space” but this is also not correct since it is the very substratum for space, time and matter. It is not inert and inactive like space but it is the very basic potentiality for all future creation. 

The five elements that go to make up our cosmos are akasha, vayu, agni, apas and prithvi (ether, air, fire, water and earth) in order of increasing grossness. Of these akasha is the most mysterious and intangible yet the most powerful since in it, is contained all the other four! It is the fundamental element. The Sanatana Dharma has always declared that creation proceeds from the subtle to the gross and not the other way round as westerners believed for a very long time. The whole cosmos is held in place due to the akasha. We know that if we suck out air, we cannot live for a moment but if we suck out akasha we will not be able to live even for a second!

At the beginning of creation there was only akasha. It is the parental element from which other elements spring and into which they all ultimately dissolve. It represents the cosmic ocean of energy which contains all possibilities. At the end of one cycle of creation, everything will melt into the akasha again, and exist in a latent state till another creation starts.  Thus akasha is an all-encompassing medium that underlies all things. We are hardly aware of our breath even though it might be quite noisy then how can we become aware of the akasha which is the subtlest of all subtleties. Because of its very subtlety is has a great impact not merely on our bodies but on our minds.

All the forms that we see are a result of the combination/ permutation of these five elements and the lower four have evolved out of  akasha. It is akasha that becomes vayu, agni, apas, and prithvi (air, fire, water and earth). It is through akasha that we are connected with the whole cosmos because, it is akasha that becomes the Sun, the Earth, the Moon, the stars, the comets; it is the akasha that becomes the human body, the animal body, the plants, every form that we see, everything that can be sensed, everything that exists.

The five elements do not respect the boundaries of our body. They come and go as they want, like air, sun (fire) water, ether. Exposure to the elements is very important to upkeep the health of our body. 

The way in which this cosmos as well as our bodies is made, is really magical. The design factor of the cosmos is exactly the same as our own bodies. From the atomic to the cosmic the fundamental design is the same though complexity keeps increasing. Even with the largest telescopes you cannot really observe the cosmos but we can experience this cosmos within our own life. This is what is called magical.

(Our ancient books have described the method of making aeroplanes or “vimanas”. But they also pointed out that any disturbance in the akasha would result in an increase in depression and anxiety in the human being. We can make our own conclusions about the state of our planet in which every major airport has hundreds of planes taking off and landing, every minute!)

The spiritual tradition from which Hinduism took its form  is Vedic. The Vedas are the most ancient record of human experience in the world and is the very foundation of the Sanatana Dharma, present day Hinduism. It was first formulated on the banks of the Saraswati River. The origin of the Vedas is not known. Hinduism calls it  “anadi” without beginning and “ananta” without end. The understanding of the five elements from which all matter arises also originates in the Vedas, the earliest sacred texts which give the culture its name. The existence of Akashic Records was first revealed in the Vedas.

The Akashic Records are understood to have existed from eternity. Just as we have various specialty libraries (e.g., medical, law), so also there are various Akashic Records (e.g., human, animal, plant, mineral, etc) encoding Universal Lore. Most writings refer to the Akashic Records only in the realm of human experience but the fact is that all phenomenal experience as well as transcendental knowledge is encoded in these records.

It is held that the rishis or sages who gave us the great way of life, known as the Sanatana dharma, were well aware that each jivatma, (embodied soul) records every moment of its existence in a “book”, which is really only a collection of vibrations.  If one attunes oneself properly to the cosmos, one can access that book. It is similar to the way in which our TV works. The vibrations are always there but we have to have a suitable instrument to be able to access it. 

Each action, thought and emotional impulse in us leaves a “trail” of energy, an imprint on the cosmic ocean, just as a boat leaves a wake in the water as it passes. These energy trails are recorded in the akasha. Every event that has ever occurred anywhere to any entity, no matter how tiny, is recorded in the Akashic Records.

Thus the Akashic Records are the mystical ‘energy records’ of all the events that have ever happened, are happening and will happen in the Cosmos. They are stored in the hiranyagarbha “The Cosmic Womb” in a coded form. Whenever an avatara requires the secret details of past and future events, it is through the hiranyagarbha that the Akashic Records are accessed.

Ancient mystics understood that energy and space have consciousness. The “Sea of Consciousness”, as it is called in the Hindu Vedic scriptures, is not random. Akasha has innate intelligence. It is aware of itself. The creations it gives birth to likewise have the potential for independent intelligence. Every molecule in the universe carries the possibility for self-awareness.

The Akashic Records are like an immense photographic film, registering all the desires and earthly experiences of our planet. Those who perceive it will be able to read the life experiences of every human being since the beginning of time, the reactions to the experiences of the entire animal kingdom, the aggregation of the thought-forms of a karmic nature (based on desire) of every human unit throughout time.

In the Vedic Age, spirituality and science were not opposed to each other as they were in the west. They were known as “jnana and vijnana” and they supported each other. Vijnana or scientific knowledge would not have been possible without “jnana” or the intrinsic knowledge of the basic components of the cosmos which pre-concluded a basic knowledge of the human mechanism both physical and astral. In the Vedic culture, mysticism and materialism worked side by side. The external world merely reflected the world within. They understood that without knowledge and power over the internal world no true knowledge of the external world was possible. Not only were they not separate entities, they were not even separate concepts.  We therefore can confidently conclude that the spiritual truths as established in the Vedas are actually what is known today as the “Akashic Records” and they have a scientific basis.

The first portion of the Vedas are known as “mantras” and in them are contained these records that are now labelled as “Akashic”. The rishis who gave these mantras to us did not claim authorship over them. They said that they had “heard” these mantras while they were in a state of super consciousness. Hence this portion of the Vedas is also called “Shruti” or “that which is heard.” 

Mantras are sound vibrations and always exist in the “akasha”. The rishis or seers of the Vedas always knew about them. The extraordinary amount of scientific knowledge that has been encoded in the Vedas can be considered to be super human if it was all the product of the brains of the rishis. But as mentioned before, the rishis never laid any claims to them nor did they declare that they were the ones who had discovered these truths. They only said that they were the “seers” or the ones who had heard or seen these vibrations and who decoded them for us! These vibrations have always existed and will continue to exist till the end of this cycle of creation. 

Vedic spirituality was founded on practical scientific truths which were discovered by the west only after the 19th century. The incredible feats of engineering and architecture which are still to be seen in our country make us understand that the knowledge the rishis had of the phenomenal world was indeed staggering. They were able to transport gigantic stones across great distances and build structures with mathematical precision, some in open contradiction to what we believe even today to be impossible, even with the aid of all modern technology. They have given us the knowledge of highly sophisticated discoveries in almost all sciences like, astronomy, astrology, mathematics, medicine, architecture and agriculture.

In this century all of a sudden, the modern world seems to have discovered this common storehouse of all knowledge and called it “Akashic Records”!

Actually quantum physics gave the most needed touch of credibility to all the knowledge imbedded in the Vedas, to a world that had so far scoffed at Hinduism as being “superstitious nonsense”. Quantum Physics admitted the existence of a state known as “The Field” or the “Zero point state of existence.” Matter which had hitherto been thought to be “solid” was suddenly discovered to be nothing but “energy in motion”. Of course this is exactly what our rishis had always claimed that this phenomenal world is only “maya”.  The rishis reached this state through a highly disciplined spiritual way of life.

They knew that what we call as “Reality” is a hologram made up of pure consciousness. It contains all the information of the entire cosmos from the beginning to the end of Time. Those who are in a state of heightened consciousness have the ability to access this information. In fact Time can be compared to a rolled up parchment which keeps unrolling as we go forward. Those who have the ability to read this parchment can look back and read the past. This is what most astrologers are capable of doing. They are all capable of giving a very good reading of the past. 

In both N. India and S India we have something called  “nadi shastras”, “palm leaf” readings which can be compared to the reading of the Akashic Records except for the fact that they have been written down by ancient masters -the sage Agastya in the South and sage Bharadwaja in the North. The person who wants to know something about himself can go to these specialised “palm leaf” readers and give his thumb print. From this the reader selects a stack of leaves which pertain to your life. In the South its written in archaic Tamil. From this the reader will tell you pretty much everything you want to know about yourself both in past lives and in the future. He will even record this and give it to you on a disc. Modern science has also discovered that each one of us has a unique finger print as pointed out by the pam-leaf reader who insists on getting your thumb print! In modern times it is also said that the individual Akashic Records are to be found in our DNA. 

All the great scientific discoveries of the west by Newton, Einstein and scores of others were not logically thought out conclusions that could be proved in a laboratory. They were all “spur-of-the moment” observations that came upon them, literally “out of the blue”! Where did they come from? At that time the west had no idea about Akashic Records but now we can conclude that they came from these records. All the scientific discoveries of ages past and ages still to come are already stored in that ocean of information! When the mind of the human becomes fit to absorb it, they will be disclosed to him.

 In India, in recent times, the life of the famous mathematician Ramanujan is a clear proof of this. Ramanujan’s knowledge of mathematics (most of which he had worked out for himself) was startling. Although he was almost completely unaware of modern developments in mathematics, his mastery of continued fractions was unequalled by any living mathematician. But what is most remarkable was the fact that he said all his brilliant conclusions were revealed to him by his “Ishta Devata” or special deity who supplied all information to him. What can this source be, but– the Akashic records.

In the west, the most exhaustive research on this matter has been done by Ervin Laszlo. In his work on the innate nature of cosmic consciousness, he describes an energy field, like the electromagnetic and gravitational fields that records and transmits all information from any event, organism or object. If this were not so, evolution would be most random. Life on this planet is actually supported by a highly narrow set of combination and conditions that transmit all information generated by any event, organism or object. If not for this field, evolution would be quite random. But the fact is that this amazing universe that runs on perfectly geometrical rules, is supported by a highly narrow combination of conditions which certainly can’t be termed as coincidence. Such a super-efficient universe cannot be operating in a random manner. There has to be some intelligent force behind it. He calls this force the Akashic Field, pointing out that the ancient Vedas exactly describe the qualities and abilities he has observed first-hand.

In his book Science and the Akashic Field, he states:

“In the Sanskrit and Indian cultures, akasha is an all-encompassing medium that underlies all things and becomes all things. It is real, but so subtle that it cannot be perceived until it becomes the many things that populate the manifest world. Our bodily senses do not register akasha, but we can reach it through spiritual practice. The ancient rishis reached it through a disciplined, spiritual way of life, and through yoga. They described their experiences and made akasha an essential element of the philosophy and mythology of India.”

He writes: “The most fundamental element of reality is the quantum vacuum, the energy and information-filled plenum that underlies, generates and interacts with our universe and with whatever universes may exist in the Metaverse”.

Ervin Laszlo equates the Vacuum field or zero-point energy with the akasha—cosmic mind, universal consciousness, and the field that unifies all things. Mr. Laszlo also says, “Although it appears solid, in the last count, matter is nothing but energy, bound in quantized wave-packets and these packets are further bound together to create the vast and harmonious architecture that makes up the world. However, these wave packets, also called the A-Field, don’t only store information occurring in the present moment, they actually contain all information, every thought, every deed, every development that has ever happened since the existence of this universe.”

Einstein tried to find a scientific explanation for the Akashic Records. He made the discovery that a space exists between the smallest existing particles. He never finished his research but said: "I just want to know God’s thoughts. The rest are details." 

Today, scientists know that this space is not empty. It is an interconnecting field of information that interweaves every atom, particle, cell, organism, and thought. It exists everywhere. It is one unified field of information that connects everything, called the Akashic Field. This field is the memory of the universe and continuously interacts with matter at all levels. It can also interact with those human beings who are on a higher state of consciousness.

This is indeed bordering on what Hinduism has always postulated. What the new physics describes as the unified vacuum is the fundamental and only real element of the universe. Western physics has always held that the ultimate nature of reality is material whereas Hinduism has postulated that the ultimate nature of the universe is the pure consciousness that is called the Brahman. All the attributes of the physical world merge into that state of the Brahman which is beyond attributes. However even though it is undifferentiated, pure consciousness, there is something called “prakriti” which is the dynamo which creates everything and is responsible for the ceaseless play of creation and dissolution.  

All the attributes of Prakriti that we see in the manifest world merge  from the akasha and return once again in the same fashion into the undifferentiated state of Brahman. 

The Brahman is what quantum physicists call the “quantum vacuum”. In the Hindu puranas this is described as the cosmic ocean or the ocean of milk on which Lord Vishnu resides. This is capable of yielding anything that we wish. The “Churning of the Milky Ocean is a story that describes this. 

Every quantum or scrap of energy leaves an imprint of its being and becoming and its reverse journey. This information is transmitted wordlessly between energy particles through the entanglement process. This information can be read only by those who are in a high state of consciousness.

"He (Brahman) who, dwelling in the akasha, is distinct from akasha, whom the akasha knows not, whose body the akasha is, who rules the akasha from within, he is thy soul, the inner guide, the immortal."

–Brihad.    Upanishad, III. 7, 12 

 Each of us has our own records which is a set of facts about us that have existed during all our births and is being written even now. It is not separate from us. The records are updated as our attitudes change. 

When we come to the Age of the Puranas we find that all scientific knowledge is encoded in the form of stories and personages which make it more interesting for us. 

 In the Puranas the keeper of the Akashic Records is known as Chitragupta. The name as usual gives a clue to the personality. “Chitra” means “photo” and “gupta” means “secret” so now we have a clue to his job. He takes secret photos – something like a CCTV camera which is always on and which misses nothing about our lives. But unlike the CCTV camera that can only shoot the physical phenomena, Chitragupta is aware of our attitudes. Every intention both good and bad is carefully recorded on the celestial screen so there is no question of favouritism. Everyone is judged according to his or her actions both physical and mental! This does not mean that it is totally fixed and unchangeable. As our attitudes change, the records are updated. Hence however great our sins may have been, if our attitude changes and we make the needed reparations, our records will also change.

Another person that we see who seems to be able to access these records in the puranas, is the celestial sage -Narada. He has the ability  to read these records in the akasha and he goes round telling people of all the things that have happened and that which is going to happen ! He is able to go to all the different realms of existence and gather information that is denied even to the gods!  

The fierce form of Kalabhairava is the energy or the very fabric of the cosmic Space-Time dimension. He is the Lord of Time in Hinduism. Shiva took the form of Kalabhairava in order to decapitate the ego of Brahma. His form invokes terror in people who are not free of their egos but he is glorious to those who are willing to drop their selfishness at his gaze. As the lord of time and integrity, he is the keeper of the cosmic archives. He knows the past, present and future and is often sought by those who are brave enough to inquire for these reasons. From time to time, Kalabhairava, through the agency of some enlightened beings, provides access to the Akashic Records which is the infinite cosmic library for the benefit of the entire humanity. In the modern times this process is known as Akashic Readings.

The Ishavasya Upanishad has a beautiful stotra that gives the whole picture of creation in a nutshell.

“Om, poornamadah poornamidam poornat poornamudacyate I poornasya poornamadaya poornameva avashishyate” 

“All is Fullness. From fullness, fullness results. When fullness is removed from fullness, what remains is still fullness.” 

Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna declares that beyond the Purusha and Prakriti which are the cognisant and active principles of creation, there is the Purushottama, the Supreme Person, who provides and sustains the three worlds.  In Chapter 15, verses 17 through 20, Krishna says: “I am transcendent, beyond the perishable and the imperishable. I am declared both in the world and in the Vedas as that supreme person - Purushottama.”

In modern terminology this can be said to be the “Unified Field of all possibilities”, as described in quantum Physics.

Actually the west also has quite a few mystics that were able to read these records. Most famous of them was of course Nostradamus ( Born Michel de Nostradame, December 1503- July 1566 ), French astrologer and physician widely known for his prophecies which he published in a book entitled “The Prophecies”, in 1555, which have become famous worldwide. Nostradamus claimed to have gained access to the Akashic Records, using methods derived from Greek Oracles, Christian and Sufi mysticism.

There was a famous lady mystic in Bulgaria called Baba Vanga, who was blind yet was able to read these records. Many of her predictions are amazingly accurate.

Nowadays it has become the fashion to go to a reader of the Akashic Records in order to find out our future. The craze to go to astrologers has now been replaced by going to readers of Akashic Records! There are many in the modern world. This is supposed to enable you to release your past “prarabdha” (previous) karmas and give you a clean slate to carry on! This has to be done by a very competent and evolved person who has been following all the yamas and niyamas (rules of internal and external purification) in her life.  If this is not done by a truly evolved soul, it can lead to drastic consequences both for the reader and the one for whom it is being read! 

Hinduism gives many types of yogas, all of which if followed with sincerity and faith will lead a person to higher states of consciousness from which state we ourselves will be able to decipher our own Akashic Records. When someone else does it for you it has every possibility of being coloured with that person’s own traumas and thus can never present a true picture. 

The best way is to surrender to your personal deity, guru or saint and ask them to guide you through these frightening combinations that our life consists of. Then we can relax and enjoy this life which is what we are meant to do.

Hari Aum Tat Sat