The Five Koshas-the Layers of Being

In Eastern philosophy the Koshas (sanscrit ) are considered the energetic layers of your body. They are referred to as sheaths, or casings that surround your Soul. The names of the bodies contain the word maya. In this context it means ‘made by’ or ‘composed of’.

The five Koshas exist together and are encased or nested within each other. Your physical body composes the outermost layer while the innermost layer contains your bliss body or Soul body.

They were first described in the ancient yogic text: Taittiriya Upanishad. The Vedic text is thought to have been written during the 6th century B.C. and provides guidelines relating to spiritual liberation.

The Self resides in the innermost chamber of the heart. From there, five layers expand outward from gross to subtle.

Some believe the Koshas are key to enhancing your awareness of your inner world and developing a connection between your mind, body, and spirit. Attention to your Koshas may awaken deeper states of awareness on your path to self-realization. Let’s explore the 5 bodies.

The Annamaya Kosha : or the physical body lives as long as it assimilates food. Its presence begins at birth and disintegrates at death. Its existence is temporary and transitory, subject to change. It is only through a process of dis-identification by witnessing all physical experiences with body that one is able to transcend the karmic limitations of the body. Only when you become free from attachment and addiction to the five physical senses of the body can it become a vehicle for self-discovery, self-actualization, and self-realization.

Pranamaya Kosha: the vital energy, breath, or life force shield. The prana body is subtler than the physical body. It activates and fuels all life-giving functions of the physical body through the 5 pranas (vital airs). Like the physical body it appears at conception and leaves at death. The prana body is composed of biological prana, which is closely connected to breath. The intelligence inherent within the biological prana is what carries out all life-giving functions. Science defines this intelligence of prana as the involuntary system. This body is also considered our Etheric body. The body double which again, is responsible for our life giving functions.

Manomaya Kosha: The mental body is finer and subtler than the physical and prana body (astral body). It exercises control over these grosser bodies. The mind is a powerful tool of separative dualistic ego of “I” and “you”-good and bad-&- success and failure. It carries your preprogrammed unresolved past experiences. It functions in the world as duality, polarity, and negativity. It promotes the fulfillment of survival, biological needs of the body, as well as the individualized desires of pleasure and protection of pain. It is the medium for social interactions and personal needs, generating illusions, rationalizations, selective memory and projections to accommodate personal addictions and fears. The mental body is a chameleon that can adapt and change its appearance to protect its self-image taking the form of a container to protect the self-image. When driven by unconscious forces it can function as negative. When guided by witness consciousness it can be a vehicle for the Divine. Although it is the medium of addictions, passions, fears, and greed, it can also be a vehicle for freedom from bondage.

Vijnanamaya Kosha: or buddhi, the sheath of intellect and understanding, witness, intuitive consciousness. The reflection of pure consciousness in buddhi is called individual self or Jiva. Jiva identifies with intellect. It gives you the sense of ‘I am” consciousness. It knows, decides, judges, and discriminates between this and that, between useful and not useful. It is the level that has the higher wisdom to seek Truth, to go within, in search of the eternal center of consciousness.

It is also the level of ego consciousness, meaning the powerful sense of ‘I am” becomes associated with karma, self-image, and personality. Through identification with the self-image, one experiences pleasure and pain, success and failure. When it becomes co-mingled with memories, it loses its positive strength. When the self-image is superimposed on the Atman(soul) it distorts your discriminative powers of buddhi (pure consciousness) and receives false notions as the doer, performer, achiever, enjoyer, and sufferer. This is the layer where your karmic chip, your deep samskaras are stored.

Anandamaya Kosha: When you enter the experience of ecstasy and unity level of stillness-the non-doing state of being- your physical body, prana body, mental body, and body of wisdom have merged in the ecstasy of the Bliss body. (causal body)

This is a non-mental, non-doing, timeless state of being in the posture of consciousness. This is the Oneness of sacred presence, where your whole body and total being receives the nectar of immortality (Amrita).

This non-doing state of grace is not the result of duality where you are receiving the result or ‘effect’ of doing that is ‘caused’ by you, the performer of the action. This entry into the sacred union where the ‘bliss’ is not occurring in the duality of ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ is the blessed state of the bliss body.

Duality-cause and effect-time and space-performer and the performance progressively move into the purity of polarity, and ultimately, when polarity merges in sacred unity- the timeless causeless Presence emerges. This is the bliss state where you become the recipient of amrita. All your boundaries of body and mind- and time and space dissolve. You are no longer the body, but rather the embodied spirit in the bliss state of being.

It is a paradigm shift from bondage of form to the freedom of the formless state of being. In this state, the amrita of the bliss body, whose vibratory rate is subtler than the other bodies, feeds, nourishes and strengthens all the bodies below it. Anandamaya kosha catches the clearest reflection of the blissful state of the soul.

Establishing a regular yoga practice, meditation, Yoga Nidra, and allowing ourselves to go deep within, can help the ego mind progressively disengage with the self-image, then our true Self can ultimately be revealed.