Pancha Koshas & Panchakoshatita

Compilation of a series of six articles published in Vedanta Sandesh : Editor

Annamaya Kosha

Taittiriya Upanishad gives us the Pancha Kosha Viveka, to help discriminate between the self & the not-self. There are five layers of our personality on the self. These five layers ‘as though’ veil the self. Really speaking nothing can veil the atma, but due to our excessive focus and importance to these layers of our personality, these layers, for all practical purposes, do appear to veil the self. We need to identify each of these properly, so that we can see them in right perspective, and thus negate our notion that these layers are our real self, and thus this very viveka helps to as though unveil the real self. Atma is revealed as Panchakoshatitaha. We shall first study each of these five kosha's, and then see what does Panchakoshatitaha exactly means.

Annamaya Kosha is the first ‘layer’ of our personality where we all slip, and erroneously take it to be our Self. This layer of our personality is made up of Anna Rasa, and it grows because of this Anna Rasa, and in the end it goes back into this Anna Rasa alone. Anna Rasa means that ‘essence’ of our food which the body retains & assimilates. While it is made up of inert matter it, and later goes back into mud again, yet it grows. It is living, it feels & responds. It has the capacity to reproduce. It is only when we take up this physical body that our lives start, and when we drop this body we ‘die’. Where ever the body is there alone we are, and where ever it goes, we too seem to go. The scriptures too say that this body is got because of our punya's, thus we are intimately related with it too. Thus there are ample reasons for this presumption to come about that ‘our description’ becomes that of this physical layer.’

While it is a fact that the sthoola sharira which is made of & by the food we eat is a very important part of our personality, and we need to take proper care of it, yet to take it as ‘I’ is an error. We pay an unimaginable price of this error by imposing the limitations of this body on our Self, and take its limitations as our own limitations. As the very ‘I’ is erroneously & baselessly taken as limited, so the innings of our life thereafter starts with a sense of limitation, which no one of us likes. Subsequently the goal of our life is to shake off this deep sense of limitation within. It is indeed a funny game which is going on in life, first we erroneously take this limited physical body as our self, and thereafter we work to remove this sense of limitation. The fact is that there is no real limitation, it is just an error borne out of ignorance of our true self. In the beginning the better relationship with the body is to take it to be ‘mine’ rather than ‘me’. This will keep the responsibilities intact, free our self from the limitations of the body, and above all help to keep an open mind to realize our real essence.

There are ample reasons for us to believe this fact that we are not this physical body. It is an ‘object’ of our consciousness. We as a ‘subject’ objectify our body, so we are naturally something different from it. We all know that subject is always different from object. Secondly when a person dies, the body remains here and we say that the person is dead & gone. Something which was present in a body a short time ago is no more. So it is evident that there is some ‘I’ which is different from this body. It alone takes up this body, and the body exists till that ‘I’ resides in & manifests from it. At this stage we need not jump to any conclusions about what the nature of real ‘I’ will or should be. At this stage we just need to keep aside our various errors. Negating the errors progressively unveils the Self. Once we have kept aside all errors, then it will be very easy to know that which is not transitory or limited. That which always is, that which is not taken up & left, that which is not an ‘object’, but exists as a knower of all objects; it alone can be called as the ‘subject, or ‘I – the Atma’.

The manifestation of the error of taking our self as the Annamaya Kosha is in the form of experiences & perceptions like: I am fat or thin, I am white or black, I am young or old, I am man or a women, I am healthy or sick, I was born & will die etc. All these statements refer only to various aspects of this layer of our personality which is made up of Anna. In other words, when we realize the truth of our self as something other than this Annamaya Kosha, then none of these things are thereafter associated with ‘I’. They may remain a fact at a particular level of our personality, but will not be seen as ‘my’ definition, and this makes all the difference. Knowledge of the truth of our self gives us an altogether new identity, a new birth & life. The various social & other problems connected with us being young & old, white & black, man or women etc attain unmanageable proportions & complexities only because of our erroneous association with this particular layer of our personality, and become petty things if we are not these things, but something which is a common denominator of all.

The lesson we learn from knowing that the Annamaya is a Kosha, is that we are prompted to re-define our relationship with our body. It is extremely necessary that we drop this error that ‘I am this body’ before we enter the portals of the realization of our true Self. In fact this negation is the very process of Self-Knowledge.

Pranamaya Kosha

The inert Annamaya Kosha is sustained & energized by a layer or level in our personality which is an Energy Layer. The word Prana when roughly translated means energy. We can visualize the existence of a energy-providing layer for all our physical activities. Every vee bit of physical activity requires energy. We are constantly acting & busy at some level, either body, sense organs or mind. Every activity requires lots of energy. It is indeed astounding that every person has as though access to infinite amount of energy, and that also without paying any bills for it. There are conscious activities, and there are unconscious activities. Conscious activities may have rest periods, but unconscious activities are continuous. Our breathing, heart beats, circulation, digestion etc all carry on almost continuously. Imagine the amount of energy required. Sometimes we do feel exhausted & drained, but nevertheless the flow of energy is always there - no disruption in power supply here. This astounding physiological system which gives us energy backup is the Pranamaya Kosha.

Taittiriya Upanishad tells us that this 'layer' of our personality is almost like 'atma' of the annamaya kosha. It is because of this prana that we live. The moment prana leaves the body, all activities come to a halt, and we have to start thinking of the last rites of this lifeless physical body. No wonder an individual is commonly called as Prani in sanskrit and hindi languages. So important is the place of prana. We also see that if we regulate our prana properly then many physical ailments come to an end. There are organizations & people who have dedicated themselves to propagate the importance of Pranayama to the world. The mind becomes quiet, energetic and capable of doing almost unimaginable things.

 However much important this kosha is, it is only a kosha, not our real self. The most evident logic against this kosha is that it is 'inert'. It is not something conscious. Prana neither has intelligence or feelings. Your prana may be active & awake, but when a robber comes in the night & takes your things away this prana will not know anything. It is as inert as stones around. Moreover, it has to be regulated by a conscious entity. A conscious entity can stop it, regulate it, or redirect it. Prana is directly connected with our mind. The moment mind gets tensed your pranic activity too gets hyper. Deeper breathing, increased heart beats etc. Mind, which appears to be a conscious entity is its master. So know Pranamaya Kosha as just one of the layers of your personality. A part of your costume. Anatma. The moment you see anatma as anatma - it stands negated.

Manomaya Kosha

Taittiriya Upanishad reveals that the atma of Pranamaya kosha is the Manomaya Kosha. Our prana, the vital energy, which takes care of the energy backup for all our physical, physiological & mental activities is sustained and thus is directly effected by our mind. Ramana Maharshi in his Upadesha Sar says that mind & prana are like two branches of one tree, both connected together below. We can see this direct co-relation of mind & prana, when we see the increased pulse & breathing rate the moment the mind gets anxiety ridden. If however, we can keep our mind pleasant & cool, then the physiological activities too get positively effected. What exactly is this Manomaya Kosha?

Manomaya Kosha is that layer of our personality which is called as mind. We have what is called as an Antahkarana (inner instrument). This broadly has two parts - the mind and the intellect. The former constitutes the manomaya kosha, while the latter is called as the Vigyanmaya Kosha, which we shall see in the next article. What is Mind? Well, mind is basically the thoughts layer of our personality. They could be any thoughts. Thoughts prompted by memories, conditionings of either likes or dislikes, various emotions or even wisdom. Thought is that because of which we are 'conscious of something'. This awareness of something or anything is a thought, and in the mind we have thoughts of various things continuously flowing. Thoughts which are as per our likes invoke positive feelings, while thoughts pertaining to our dislikes invoke negative emotions. Those who do not know how these thoughts come about are continuously buffeted by the various thoughts. They are helplessly caught up in their moods. Not knowing their secret & genesis they even arrogate their good & bad moods and experiences to destiny, or even to the whims & fancies of God.

Every thought has a great inherent power, it effects our physiology, moods, physical body, responses, work efficiency, relationships and even wisdom. In short our thoughts determine as to what we really are. In our day to day life mind is really the real essence of man. As the mind so the man. The modern day epidemic problem of stress is basically a problem at the level of mind, wherein a great negative emotion has been allowed to be built up without giving it a vent.

The secret of managing your mind is by understanding the mind. Understand properly as to what a thought is, how they come about, what are its contents. However, to begin with, check out the quantity, quality & direction of your thoughts. Having a clear & noble goal begins the process of setting the house in order. Then we can directly see the effect of mind on our prana. It is indeed that which sustains the prana. So dont think that pranayama is just doing some breathing exercises. Till you manage your mind, you can not really manage your prana - say the Vedas. However, there is something beyond mind too, and that is our Vigyanmaya Kosha - which we shall see in our next article.

Vigyanmaya Kosha

Taittiriya Upanishad reveals, that our real self, the 'atma' is Panchakosha vyatariktah, i.e. that which transcends the five kosha's. Transcendence is not that which exists in a realm beyond the five kosha's, but that which even though pervades these five layers of existence exists independent of these five kosha's. While the kosha's are dependent for their existence on this timeless divinity, the self is independent of these. Starting from Annamaya Kosha the five kosha's are progressively subtler, so as we progress to identify & discover each of these kosha's we simultaneously make our minds subtler too. The Self is the subtlest of all these, so the appreciation of these five kosha's also becomes a means to prepare our minds for the ultimate realization. Pancha Kosha Viveka is a one of the finest journey to the ethereal, divine and transcendental realm. It is the valid means of realization revealed by the Upanishads themselves for the one, non-dual divinity.

In the last article we studied about the Manomaya Kosha. We saw that manomaya kosha is that layer of our personality which there are thoughts prompted by memories, conditionings of either likes or dislikes, various emotions or even wisdom. We also saw that 'thought' is that because of which we are 'conscious of something'. Once a particular thought is there it has its own positive or negative effect. Thought by itself is a great potent power. It effects our physiology, moods, physical body, responses, work efficiency, relationships and even wisdom. We saw that as the mind so is the man. Now, we go a step further. Is the mind our real self, or is it sustained by something else? For all practical purposes mind is indeed the basis of our identity, and very few people have paused to objectively understand this highly subtle and important level of our existence. Some wonder as though from were do these thoughts come? Who sends our thoughts? Today we know that there is a conscious mind and a a very vast unconscious mind. In this unconscious mind exist our impressions & conditionings. The seeds of the manifested thoughts at the conscious level. The Rishi's of Upanishads do not look upon us as someone who is just innocently receiving impressions from the world outside. Mind is not comparable to a slate where the world writes something and thereafter we just follow that conditioning. We are not inert objects but dynamic & intelligent living beings. If we were just recipients of impressions from outside, there would have been no creative work in the world, and creativity is all about doing something which is not a product of our memory. It is not something which we have seen or experienced earlier. 

The Upanishad reveals that the self of manomaya is the vigyanmaya. Vigyanmaya includes our intellect and also the Gyana Indriya's (the equipments of perception). This level is basically that of knowledge. Yes, we are being told that all thoughts are product and reflection of our 'knowledge'. Knowledge is our understanding, our appreciation of the fundamentals of life. The very fact we all have a self-identity, reveals that all of us have some understanding about ourselves, it doesn't matter, whether it is right or wrong, but it is there. The fact that we have desires, shows that we have certain fundamental understanding about the real source of joy & happiness, the reality of things outside etc. Every thought has at its root, certain presumptions, which exist in our unconscious mind. We may have got these as impressions from outside, but the fact we choose to accept certain things reveals our nature & level of understanding. Let us see this fact with an example. X fellow is striving hard to attain a Y object. He is working hard, even prays for the fulfillment of his or her desires. Today X certainly has the strong thoughts of the Y, but before this thought & desire certain other things have taken roots. We need to see what all presumptions exist in X before the thought & desire of Y can exist in his or her mind.

One, X obviously sees himself as a lacking person, two, he presumes that the object Y seems to have the potential of effacing the lack within, that the object Y is a real thing with substantial independent reality. The nature of lack is seen as something which an extraneous object can remove. I am a limited being, and things outside too are limited, in the sense that they exist apart from me. We presume that happiness is not something subjective, but a product of objective situations. We presume that our action or effort of acquiring a particular object is the real valid means of getting real fulfillment. There is a list of presumptions which exist in this innocent act of X wanting a Y object. While the great thinkers reflect deeply on each & every point, and deliberate for years for coming to the right conclusion, an ordinary man of the world concludes about various things impulsively and thoughtlessly. The vigyanmaya kosha is obviously not used at all. It is these conclusions & presumptions which sustain our thoughts, and the moments some basic premise changes, we see how drastically the person changes too. Buddhi or intellect is an intelligent equipment. We can reflect & deliberate on any thought. We can objectify thoughts, go deep into the presumptions sustaining thoughts and even quieten all thoughts effortlessly. This is our Vigyanmaya Kosha. Awake to this dimension of your personality. Try to discover the presumptions behind every thoughts, and you enter the controllers cabin. One who enters the vigyanmaya kosha alone ends all bondages and will shortly attain moksha & self-realization. This is so very important.

However, there is something beyond buddhi too, which this buddhi alone has to 'see', and that is our Anandamaya Kosha - which we shall see in our next article.

Anandamaya Kosha

In the last article we saw how important the vigyanmaya kosha is. This is where the roots of our bondage & liberation are. Vigyanmaya kosha included our buddhi, were we take all decisions. It is these decisions, our conclusions which give direction to our thoughts & desires, which manifests in our manomaya kosha. Our conclusions basically pertain to two things, one, the subject - our self, and two, the objective world, the world which is known & experienced by us. I, the subject looks at the objective world with some thirst, it wants something, and thus formulates a plan of action to do whatever it does. What is that which compels the buddhi to plan, conclude, & discern. Obviously there is some motivation. That which motivates the buddhi is our final kosha - the anandamaya kosha.

Motivation indicates drive. It reveals something for which we live & exist. It is something which prompts all faculties to work & be active. Therefore everyone should be clear about their motivation. Clearer & stronger the motivation better is the output of work. The buck of all desires & essence of motivation is in seeking happiness. This is indeed the basic motivation, this alone drives everyone for doing whatever one does. Attainment of a state of deep fulfillment. There is no greater fruit of any of our action than our satisfaction. Money fulfills our needs and brings happiness, name gives happiness, sensual gratification is for this alone, and so on. The desire for happiness alone motivates us to think, enjoy & act. That level of existence wherein we are experiencing happiness is called by the Upanishads as 'Anandamaya Kosha'.

Anandamaya Kosha is the atma of vigyanmaya kosha. It alone sustains the latter. Desire for ananda alone motivates the latter. So deep down in our buddhi is this realm of 'joy'. Ananda is basically one but depending on the intensity of its manifestation it is categorized in three kinds. Priya, Moda & Pramoda. Priya is that intensity of joy which we experience when we 'think' of our cherished object or person, Moda is that intensity which we experience when we are near of desired person or object, and Pramoda is that joy which we experience when we are one with our object of love. All this alone keeps everyone on the run, we are motivated for all this alone.

It apparently appears that this is the summum bonum of our life, the ultimate which we can dream of, that we have everything we cherish & dream of. However, Upanishads say that this is not the ultimate, because however much we 'experience' ananda, we basically still remain a seeker & are still in bondage. It is this 'desire' to experience ananda, and having experienced ananda, the desire to 'hold on' to all that which gives us ananda is indicative of the the continuity of our insufficiency. Desire of experience of ananda indicates a lacking self, and as long as that exists no matter how much we experience ananda, we shall continue to live in lack & limitation. So awakening in anandamaya kosha, or the realm of 'experience' of ananda is not the ultimate state. Experience of some ecstatic ananda is not moksha either, it is still the realm of bondage, we are still in ignorance. The final step is the realization that 'I am that'. I am of the nature of bliss. One who has this knowledge is free, he or she alone is liberated, rest will continue to live in the realm of anatma, in the pancha-kosha. It is this direct realization which is the subject matter of Self-Knowledge, i.e. Vedanta.

With this we end our series of articles on the five realms of our existence as revealed in the Taittiriya Upanishad. 

Panchakoshatita

In the last five articles we were going into the Pancha Koshas - the five sheaths of our personality, as revealed in the Taittiriya Upanishad. Now in this article we shall go into the culmination of this knowledge. One who has the discrimination of five kosha's is indeed a wise man. He sees all these sheaths as anatma, and in effect does not associate his self with these outer layers. Such an enlightened wise man who does not see the limitations of his various faculties & instruments as his limitation is a Jivanmukta, a liberated soul. The atma is always revealed to all. The problem is never of ‘not knowing’ the self, but knowing it wrongly. The self-revealing, ever-effulgent self is the very basis of our life & all its experiences, we just superimpose the limitations of anatma on this atma. The moment we see anatma as anatma, then that very moment, the self is as though freed of all its imaginary limitations, and is realized directly as that which is timeless & infinite – the Brahman. This realization is real freedom.

Bondage of man is a strange thing. The fact that the majority of people the world over are on a desperate and also apparently a never ending seeking-trip, shows that very few have understood the exact nature of their basic problem. Everyone naturally experiences a basic sense of lack, and it is this lack which drives us to do something, compulsively. There is no freedom not to do something about this. This deep rooted compulsion to handle this 'feeling of lack' is the symptom of real bondage. Strangely enough all our efforts stop short of effacing this 'sense of limitation'. The only changes which are seen is in the object of our desires. Earlier we sought something else, now we seek something else, but the common denominator remains same, we continue to seek. No permutations or combinations outside seem to do the desired trick. We feel like the person who gave out his best the whole night to sail to some destination, but in the morning saw that he was on the shore alone, because he had forgotten to untie the rope. So initially we were 'uncomfortably unhappy' and after all the money & comforts we just graduate into a state were we are 'comfortably unhappy'. After all the treatment the basic malaise continues to choke us. This fundamental problem of man has been a matter of great deliberation by various thinkers all over the world, and depending on their understanding of the basic problem, appropriate measures are taken to handle it. With due respect to all thinkers we have to say that indeed very few have understood the real issue, because man continues to seek - endlessly & compulsively.

The Vedic seers present the conclusions of their deliberations in Upanishads. They unanimously say that the real issue is not about some change in the objective world outside, but rather the issue is totally subjective. Real bondage is just ignorance of our Self (agyana), and the subsequent imposition of the limitations of anatma on atma (adhyasa). The real problem is in our erroneous perceptions about the fundamentals of our self and the world. So knowledge alone was seen as the door to true liberation. With such fundamentals they saw that every experience has the component of the subject and the object, and all limitations belong only to the field of objects. Limitations are an object of our knowledge. Having properly concluded that all limitations just belong to extraneous things, they negated the imaginary limitations on their Self, and once all limitations are passed on to were they truly deserve, they saw that the subject 'I' was free from all limitations. The spectrum of anatma is very wide, from the gross to the subtlest, so this alone takes some time, but once you can see very clearly that all the sheaths are an ‘object’ of your knowledge and you as a subject are free from their limitations, then that very moment you realize that you are a free one, as though liberated.

Such a wise man who sees himself as someone who transcends the five kosha's does not see himself as white or black, man or women, fat or thin etc. Not that he or she doesn't see the pros & cons of any quality of things in the objective world, but no where do they associate themself with these qualities. That alone is the basic issue. Not associating ourselves with the limitations of the objects. They effortlessly revel in a state of timeless, infinite, blissful, self-effulgent existence, which they know as their real Self. Such a man of knowledge is called Panchakoshatitaha. In the fourteenth chapter of Bhagwad Gita Lord Krishna points this in terms of gunas, and defines a man of knowledge as one who has become gunatita. Atita means beyond, transcending. Transcending means to see your existence unaffected by the thing you transcend. So when we transcend the five kosha's, in effect this implies that neither my existence nor my fulfillment depends on these five sheaths. The fulfillment of these people does not depend on any particular condition of these five sheaths, but is there inspite of any condition of these five sheaths. Meditation for them is not merely to make the mind thoughtless for some time, but to awake to this knowledge that I am that who transcends all thoughts, and thus thoughts or no thoughts it doesn't matter to my fulfillment. Meditation without this knowledge is just an act of escape, were the moment you are back from meditation the basic problem remains as it is.

Thus everyone should see the profound importance of Pancha Kosha Viveka, and go into each kosha thoroughly so as to see them as anatma. Once you see anatma as anatma, then alone you will unveil the atma and see atma as atma. Aim to be Panchakoshatitaha, that is the real goal of life, the real state of health, well-being & real freedom.