The Pancha-Maya Koshas

The Panchamaya Koshas are the five illusory sheaths that veil the eternal self (Turiya). They are not literally sheaths but are appearances, perceived as something much more tangible and concrete than what they truly are. ‘Pancha’ means five, and ‘Kosha’ means sheath. They are the five sheaths within Maya that block us from knowing the true and inherent nature of Brahman. Because one’s attention is constantly fixed on the outer layers of the mind such as the gross physical body, it’s incomprehensible for one to know their true identity, which is why one gets stuck in the illusion of rebirths (samsara). It is because one takes themselves to be something other than the Atman (which is free from illusion), that the illusion of samsara persists. The entire point of understanding the different pancha maya koshas is for one to grasp what resides beyond their normal day to day perception. If one truly understands the nature of the deeper layers of the mind, they can use this intellectual knowledge as the foundational support for their meditative inquiry which aims at exposing these inner sheaths through direct experience. The more one’s attention is turned inward, the inner sheaths become exposed one by one as the outer ones become negated through the process of neti-neti (not this, not this). This process continues until the Atman (Turiya) is finally exposed as the last fundamental substratum, at which point there is no longer anything else to negate since even the doership to negate is lost. 

 

The earliest mention of the Koshas comes from the Taittiriya Upanishad, one of the primary Upanishads. The koshas are brought up in a conversation as “pointers” to help a student on the path of self-inquiry to realize the non-dual state (Advaita). At the end of the dialogue, the student finally knows through direct experience, that all, is in-deed, the undifferentiated bliss of Brahman.  

 

It is important to understand that the knowledge of these sheaths is not intended to be entertained intellectually. It is meant to point you to what resides within (right now) which can only be experienced when you turn inward. The more you turn inward, you will directly experience these inner sheaths, just like you consciously experience the physical body right now as you read this message. The knowledge of the sheaths will help you understand what needs to be exposed during meditative inquiry and what must be negated further for Turiya to become exposed.  

 

The inner sheaths pervade the outer sheaths since the outer sheaths are dependent on the on them for their existence. For example, the prana sheath which is more subtle than the physical sheath, MAKES UP the physical sheath. The inner sheaths project the outer sheaths and express them as a more concrete appearance based on its own inherent nature. The more inner the sheath is, the more it pervades everything else that is projected outward. This is similar to space pervading objects, as objects are dependent upon space to exist.

 

There are many teachings that break down these five sheaths even further. However, it is unnecessary to do so as it makes things more complicated that what they need to be. The five sheaths also include the different bodies of Vedanta (i.e. physical, subtle and causal), which is also another pointer to explain the different states of Maya one must transcend to expose Turiya which underlies all of these superimposed states. 

 

The five koshas will be explained in thorough depth along with the different bodies since they are both directly related and make up one another.  Once you understand these five sheaths and different bodies, you must use it during your inquiry, otherwise, the knowledge will only reside at a superficial or conceptual level. 

 

The five koshas are as follows:

 

1. Annamaya Kosha: Food sheath (Physical Body, i.e. waking state)

 

2. Pranamaya Kosha: Vital Energy sheath (Subtle Body, i.e. dreaming state)

 

3. Manomaya Kosha: Mind sheath or Manas (also Subtle Body, i.e. dreaming state)

 

4. Vijñānamaya Kosha: Intellect sheath or discernment sheath (also Subtle Body, i.e. dreaming state)

 

5. Anandamaya Kosha: Bliss sheath (Causal Body, i.e. deep sleep state)

 

 

Annamaya Kosha

 

The annamaya kosha is the food sheath. ‘Anna’ means food; it is food that makes up the physical body. The physical body is used as a vehicle to traverse through the physical realm which allows one to have a “physical” experience. This kind of experience is held in the waking state. This reality seem concrete and substantial, especially when one takes themselves to be the physical body which appears to be separate from other “physical things”. One therefore takes themselves to be the body made up of blood, flesh, bones and fat. When one is immersed in their physical body, it’s hard to believe or even imagine that there exists something much subtler and hidden within. 

 

The food or physical sheath is superimposed on the other 4 sheaths. This means the other 4 sheaths hidden within it are operating right now; you just don’t consciously realize it. If the food sheath is operating, it means all other sheaths are operating as well, since this sheath depends on the others for its function. After-all, the food sheath is lifeless matter. It is inert on its own and depends on the inner mind to govern its activities. Without it, there would be no animation principle present. The physical body or the physical realm cannot run without the power of the mind since it is the mind that imagines it to be.  This physical realm is the most dense experience of Maya. It is an expression of Maya that is the “furthest” away from realizing the self since it is the most deceiving. Although the physical body seems dense and physical, this doesn’t mean it is actually dense and physical. Physicality is only an illusion or an appearance. It is data that is expressed in a physical way, but the data itself is immaterial. So what is experienced as physical and substantial is really just empty. If one turns inward and becomes conscious of the inner sheath that makes up the physical realm, they will directly realize that what was originally perceived as physical; was actually imaginary. 

 

Nonetheless, the physical body is used as a vehicle for self knowledge because if one attains self realisation from the physical realm, there is more appreciation for the knowledge of atma since it is compared to a reality that is expressed as extremely physical and gross. It allows the seeker to truly understand Brahman and one’s own true inherent nature by comparing between both physicality and something that is not only non-physical but also non-subtle. Therefore, for one to reveal this knowledge, they must turn inward to reveal the more inner koshas which animates the physical body. 

 

Pranamaya Mosha

 

The next of the koshas is the pranamaya kosha. Prana means energy. It is the vital force that makes up matter as its essence, so that the self can experience a "physical world" via illusion. 

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Prana is not the physical breath. It is the energy behind the breath. It is this energy that not only allows inert and lifeless matter to animate itself in order to function and run as if it has the power to move, but is what makes up  matter itself. The reason why a mass of flesh or matter can move, is because of the energy that allows it to function as such.  In truth, matter is actually energy hidden in disguise, but only considered matter because it is 'perceived' as matter. It is also important to note that prana is not inside the body. It is that which makes up the projection of the body in physical form.  The prana vibrates really fast, and the resulting vibrations form the illusion of the body and all other perceived physical objects.  This is similar to a string that vibrates really fast and expresses a certain shape that can now be conceived of based on its own formless energy. It is prana that manifests the existence of "matter". 

 

When you expose the pranamaya kosha, you will feel the vibrational energy of prana. It will feel as if your physical body isn’t physical anymore but rather a vibration that is made up of formless energy. When you identify with the pranamaya kosha, you will intuitively know that this is an animation principle that is subtlety vibrating really fast, and is projecting the body into an actual form that appears to be physical. You can become conscious of this prana when you experience the vibrations as a result of turning attention away from the physical body. If this happens, you lose consciousness of the physical body and transcend the clouded senses used through the physical organs such as the ears, nose, tongue, etc. When you turn away from the body, the senses naturally turn away from these physical organs, and the senses which are more immaterial begin to have a purer experience as it is now experienced through a subtler form. This means all physical sensations and consciousness of the physical body is not present when one’s attention is completely immersed in the pranamaya kosha. It is through this kosha that one enters a much more subtle state.  For example, when you dream at night, you are using the pranamaya kosha along with the other subtler koshas (will be explained later on). The functions of these inner koshas are operating but unconsciously since your attention is not fully there in each one yet. 

 

There are several different functions of prana called vayus which we categorize based on movement and direction. Note: These five pranas do not suggest that there are literally five different pranas.  It is all the same prana but only split to explain the direction in where the prana goes.  Therefore, these are just five different functions of the same prana.

 

Prana: forward moving energy

Apana: moving away energy  (used for the elimination of waste, fluids, etc.) 

Udana: moving upward energy (growth of body, the way we stand, evolution, etc.)

Samana: balancing energy (digesting and absorbing functions) 

Vyana: outward moving energy (circulation). 

 

These functions all work together and are completely in sync with one another in order to perform their respective functions in the body. Keeping these function in harmony and in equilibrium means good health. When it is time for the physical body to die, consciousness loses attention of the physical body as it becomes exposed to the prana.  This is known as the prana exiting the physical body.  Consciousness now rests as the subtle body since it still has form, albeit a subtler version.  It no longer projects a physical body until it is the right time to do so under the perfect conditions. 

 

While the pranamaya kosha explains the subtle expression of maya beyond the physical form, it is just a way to explain the movement in animation of the character.  Imagine a cartoon which consists of different images. The annamaya kosha would correspond to the outline of the image, forming the physical basis of the structure, while the pranamaya kosha would correspond to the movement of those images. The image made up of food, can only move due to the prana or the projecting principle that forces the movement. It is the pranamaya kosha that facilitates the movement of the animation held in the waking state since it is the energy that makes up matter as its essence. However, even this kosha must be negated to expose the deeper part of the mind that is in direct control of the movement. 

 

Manomaya Kosha

 

Known as the mental body, the manomaya kosha is made up of thought energy. Manas means mind. This kosha is governed by thoughts in the mind. It is in the level of processing thoughts and emotions which directs the 

control of the operation, through the prana, of the physical body and senses. 

 

It’s in this kosha that we start to welcome all the inner workings of the mind and all the emotions/feelings that we may be experiencing. If we allow ourselves to become more still with less disturbances beyond the vibration of prana, we can begin to see how this kosha dictates the movement (i.e. prana) of the mind and where it goes. The thoughts and emotions we experience affect the energy flow in and around us, which in turn affect our energetic and physical health. So, by becoming inwardly aware of our thoughts, judgements, and emotions as they arise, allows us to expose this kosha and realize how it not only affects the other two outer koshas (annamaya and pranamaya) but governs them into existence as it shapes the very existence of them. 

 

The manas is a mental field. It consists of vrittis or disturbances of thoughts and emotions that ripples through this field. The more vrittis present in the manomaya kosha, the more fragmented your mind becomes and the more your attention goes elsewhere (away from the self). Sadhanas or spiritual practice cleanses your mind of these vrittis which allows one to see through the stillness of this mental field.

 

If prana is the animation force behind the movement of the cartoon images, it is the manomaya kosha that controls what the character does and how it moves. After all, the thoughts we experience and the emotions we feel is what governs our actions and influences us to behave and act a certain way. The manomaya kosha is a pure version of the subtle body. It is the body we use when we are no longer tied to a phsyical experience.  For example, when you die physically, you go beyond both the annamaya kosha and the pranamaya kosha.  In this subtle body, your experience is full of thoughts, desires, emotions, sensations, all of which are not tied to a physical or energetic state.  Imagine how your experience would be if you were no longer aware of 'physicality' or 'energy'.  The manomaya kosha is beyond the energy of the pranic field.  It is purely mental. It is made up of the immaterial mind.  It is only when the thoughts, desires, emotions, sensations that make up this mental field, yearn to express a physical state, that it then transitions from its pure subtle body into a physical one.  The merging of the pure subtle state to the physical one first comes as energy (prana), which eventually materializes into matter.  In other words, the pranamaya kosha is the forming field between pure subtlety and pure materiality.  It is the transition point between the pure subtle body and the pure physical body. It is this transition from subtlety to physicality that forms the illusion of energy as a subtler form of physicality which eventually forms the complete substance of matter.  The energy and matter which are always one and the same form the structure of the cartoon character.  But even the subtle pranamaya kosha must be transcended to arise to the higher mind responsible for the knowledge of the cartoon. 

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VijnanaMaya Kosha

 

Beyond Mind (Manas) there are higher levels of mind responsible for discriminating between what is real and what is unreal. In silence it knows without needing to think. But when disturbed, it becomes a discriminatory mind perceiving duality. This intellectual sheath is known as “VijnanaMaya Kosha”. Vijnana means knowing. When you rest here by turning inward into the extreme depths of the mind with dispassion for the other sheaths, you receive sharp vivid intuitive flashes of the pure self.  The vijnanamaya kosha is the nature of direct cognition or pure intuition. It is the sheath of wisdom that is underneath the processing, thinking aspect of mind (manas). It knows, decides, judges, and discriminates between this and that. Without it, duality couldn’t be conceived of. It is also the level of ego consciousness, meaning the powerful wave of I-am-ness. This I-am-ness itself is a positive influence, but when it gets co-mingled with the memories, and is clouded over by manas, it loses its positive strength.

 

The intellect is also referred to as the buddhi. The buddhi is so much more subtle than the other koshas. For one to even know the illusion of the cartoon and to truly understand what the cartoon even is, reliance on the buddhi is needed. When the buddhi is clouded and gravitates to the lower koshas, it loses its strength and automatically becomes the operating manas and simultaneously becomes the prana governing the functions of the character. It then automatically becomes the character moving and now perceiving itself to be a body that is separate from everything else. This entire process happens all-at-once, since there exists only the present moment. But because the illusion of linearity appears, we take this now moment and break it up into past, present and future which allows the illusion of duality to be. 

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The buddhi can either take attention in two directions.  Either it takes it back to the illusory koshas that perpetuates the illusion of a character, or it goes in the direction towards the self through complete stillness. But before the buddhi can go in this direction, it must pass through another kosha that may keep attention grounded in the potential of nothingness.

 

Anandamaya Kosha

 

The anandamaya kosha is known as the bliss sheath. It is the causal body or the state of deep sleep. In this sheath, all sheaths are absent and are reduced to a state of potentiality. This means they are not expressed but reside in a state of dormancy or in an unmanifested condition of nothingness, with only the potential to express itself again. One resides in this causal state every time they enter deep sleep. All other koshas that make up the mind become inactive and from the causal body point of view, do not exist. Yet, with the awakening of this potentiality, all other sheaths manifest again as they become active and are expressed as they were once before. 

 

This causal body holds the innate cause of all other expressed states. It is similar to a seed that holds within it the potentiality to produce a tree. The causal body holds all karma that yearns to express itself in other conditions as knowable actions. This data is undifferentiated, meaning they hold no form. But once expressed, they hold meaning, and consciousness can now take itself to be something it is truly not. When one enters deep sleep, all worries, fear, stress, anxiety and experiences collapse onto its fundamental cause. Here, your attention is no longer on a physical or subtle body, nor is it on the pure self.  Your attention is on nothing conceivable and therefore suspended in nothingness.  This experience cannot be explained adequately as there is nothing to hold on to at all. It is only when attention holds on to a form, that creation ensues, and you wake up to form.  

 

While the causal body is said to be a body, it doesn’t mean it has form. It is nothingness and completely empty. It cannot be said to be some tangible thing that exists. It is an imaginary potentiality that holds the hidden spark to express itself. We explain it as a potential because we now perceive there to be "things". When there is the slightest ripple of desire that yearns to be expressed from this potentiality, the desire is expressed as the subtle body operating through the vijnanamaya kosha, from which all other koshas are simultaneously expressed.

 

Just like the pranamaya kosha exists because of the transition from the manomaya kosha to the annamaya kosha, the anandamaya kosha exists because of the transition from the pure self to the vijnanamaya kosha.  Why is there even such thing as the anandamaya kosha? The self being pure and unexplainable should not produce any kosha since it is truly attribute-less and actionless.  But because we perceive there to be something else (i.e. a different kosha), we must say that there must exist some potential for the koshas to be (even though they are illusions and are truly never produced!) Therefore, the anandamaya kosha is explained as this pure potential that is the fundamental explaining factor and imaginary programming that expresses and generates form (all other conceived koshas). However, even this kosha must be negated to rest in the unbroken knowledge of the Atman. 

 

Beyond all five koshas is the Atman which allows all koshas to be known. It is the Atman that is the pure witness of these koshas. When one’s attention is placed in a kosha, it will seem as if the witness is separate from them, but when one negates all koshas and rests as the Atman, it is now intuitively known that the koshas were never separate from the Atman, as they are now non-separate from the witnessing of it. This means the koshas were never separate from the Atman and was only an appearance held on the Atman’s own screen of awareness.  In other words, the koshas were awareness itself, and only conceived of as koshas when one was deluded into believing they were different. 

 

If you witness something separate from you, then that something is not really “you”. What’s really you is something that cannot be objectified. This can only be truly known when one rests as the Atman while they completely witness their own non-separate appearance which allows them to have unbroken and steady knowledge of their true self. 

 

While the koshas cannot be said to be the Atman, in truth, there is only the Atman. So what appeared to be the koshas, were in actuality, the Atman! But because one does not see it that way, their perception must be corrected by turning inward and realizing what was once considered real is now considered unreal. Nonetheless, the koshas are an expression of maya and allows one to truly understand their true nature. Without the illusion of the koshas, the knowledge of the Atman would not be possible.