Kosha
The wise sages of old interpret the perception of reality as the 5 fold embodiment. These layers are the koshas or sheaths. Lets discuss these in minimal and poetic detail
AnnamayaKosha
(Anna-maya-Kosha)
The first kosha is called AnnamayaKosha. A direct translation would be food/material filled layer.This layer comprises your physical body, the senses and the perception of the material world.
It includes both your inward senses and outward ones.
The inward senses: senses that send signals to your brain, like your eyes, nose, touch etc…
The outward senses: organs of action — like speech, movement, excretion — which carry signals from the brain to the body
In ancient literature they are called Jñānendriyas (organs of knowledge) and Karmendriyas (organs of actions)
It also refers to what material you associate with your self, like your necklace or shoe, like you job or your family relations
I am born to this world,
I am my body ever free,
I am as I seem,
I seem to be,
Why am I alone
Why ‘I am’
The Kosha of Material is the outward facing version of you, with the highest expression of your existence as a superficial being. A person may judge you quite immediately by this version’s presence alone. An animal would also perceive you as harmless or threatening. No matter what your intentions truly are.
This layer is where you reside in your day to day.
Pranamayakosha
(Pra-na-maya-Kosha)
The next layer is called the PranamayaKosha. A direct translation would be life-force/energy filled layer
This layer provides desire to the body. The need to move, the need to keep living, the need to procreate and many other things that sustain your existence.
It is I that breathes, but who breathes through me.
It is I that thirsts, but who drinks through me.
It is I that sleeps, but who dreams through me.
Am I me or just its shadow.
I am Desire my love
You live through me
The Kosha of Energy is the layer of you that sustains guidance within your system. When you are running low on energy, it makes you hungry, when you need water, it makes you thirsty. It keeps your breath moving and your digestion going. It is the para-sympathetic system(Kundalini) that you rely on for your heartbeat and breathing, it is the need to itch a bite or yawn when bored.
This is the layer you learn to actively ignore. Imagine needing to take control of each breath and heartbeat.
Mannomayakosha
(Manno-maya)
The kosha after this is the MannomaayaKosha translated to the emotion filled layer. This is your driver of thought,Your experiences and first impressions build this layer.
O Mother of mine,
How beautiful this butterfly, that sits atop you palm,
How wonderful these flowers, this garden, these sounds.
This is my world, is it not?
No my child, darkness awaits all,
Wolves and mighty tigers sit atop,
But today, you are mine and this world yours.
The Kosha of Emotions is a whirlpool of your material existence. All informing your present and future experiences. What you have seen will become the building blocks for this layer and inform your actions and first response. Your reflexes are a good example of this.
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This layer keeps you safe but it isn’t easy to reform — to control it is akin to lifting a mountain.
VijyanaMayaKosha
(Vigg-yana-maya)
This kosha is your informed and sound mind, translating to the Scientific/Logical kosha. The one that discriminates, the one that overcomes emotions when given power. Many may think this is where you truly are. A thinking person, An intelligent person.This kosha is your Guru, it guides you from ignorance towards enlightenment. And when its intentions are wrong, it becomes your absolute enemy, It draws power from the first 3 koshas, your senses, your desires for life, your experiences and preferences.
This is why you must worship this kosha and keep in active conversation with it. For when it feels ignored, it discriminates against you.
Am I wrong to fear the wolf, whose pack would hunt for me.
Am I wrong to fear the Tiger, whose eyes are seeking me.
Am I not their food, should this not be easy.
You are life, you are will, you are fear for some.
You mean to many a lot and to many you mean none.
Most of all, you are a life, you are my life.
Live happily till they come,
Die knowing you lived
Live knowing you Die
The Kosha of Intellect interacts with you actively, it guides your decisions and infers from your memories, it is intelligence and ego, it is your guru and at times your worst enemy.
AnandamayaKosha
(aa-nanda-maya-kosha)
The final kosha is the AnandamayaKosha, translating to The bliss filled layer. This kosha is quite literally 0. Ananda is the state of high bliss, the state of existing without existing. The unconscious version of you.
Sometimes during sleep, you don’t dream, you don’t think, you don’t experience, this isn’t deep sleep, this isn’t REM, this is beyond and happens to us all. The great sages equate this state of existence as the deepest and most profound, the final goal of meditation is to actively realize this state. It is called sushupti in ancient tradition, the dreamless deep sleep state in Vedanta, yet it is not mere sleep — it is awareness without object. When one comes to actively experience this state, they see themselves beyond discrimination, beyond identity or ego, beyond the senses and become bliss itself. They see that they are no different from others, human or otherwise. They are the rock they sit upon, they are the food they eat, that they are and nothing else.
Aham Bhramsmi, Tatwam Asi
I art the universe, thou art too
I have been a life,
I have been living my life,
Have I been living your life?
Am I as satisfied as you?
Why are you satisfied?
Can I be you?
Am I you?
I are already you,
You are not yet me.
Come to me.
Om, Apavitro Pavitrova, Sarvavastha Gathopiva, Yaha-Smreth Punderakaksha, Sabhayantra Suche.
Oh you who are pure and you who are impure, and you who are everything in between,
By the lotus that grows through my muddy waters, be reminded you are not so different.
The great sanatan sages of India saw this as reality.
We all live in these muddy waters called maya.
Where we think like the fish, that the pond is all there is.
To remember the lotus, is to see that it rises towards something beyond
And blooms in the hereafter. So must you.
(Hereafter does not refer to death and beyond, it refers to beyond the perception of the fish)
Each kosha is not an enemy to be discarded, but a layer to be understood, honored, and transcended. The journey inward is not one of rejection but of integration — to live fully in all five and yet remember you are beyond all five.
