Ashtavakra Gita 6.2 -

The world and our body are alike made up of pañca-bhūtas, which have a majestic sequence in their qualities. Earth is solid, like our body. But water is fluid, pervasive to a degree. Ocean looks endless. Air is even more so. And space, colourless and odourless, is the most pervasive.

Our body hosts water, air, fire and space. Reflect on them, instil and imbibe progressive expansion. You will, before long, be able to grasp and actualize the Self, cid-ākāśa, the sentient space!

Janaka illustrated space first. Now he becomes the endless sea, making the world scattered waves on it. Waves have no distinct entity at all. They are but successive elevations on the surface, with no claim for independent distinct presence. They are all water alone. What importance can one give to waves then?

Any number of waves mean no addition to the sea. They are there, but not really as a substance. Count the waves, they will be infinite. But is such infinity there? Waves are only an appearance, never substantial. Why then call them wave at all? Is it right to name anything, that does not inhere at all?

World is such an expression. Neither acceptance, nor rejection, nor dissolution is applicable to it, declares Janaka confidently before his Sage Instructor. Any studious seeker can also feel and speak alike. Truth does not vary with individuals, nor times.