The experience of the five koshas (layers of the body)

Annamaya kosha, the body of matter, is the first level of our experience. The human body is not merely a composition of bone, blood, muscle, and skin. The whole human structure has both a manifest and an unmanifest dimension. The body's reach extends beyond its physical structure. It acts within the dimension of matter through Annamaya kosha; moving the body from place to place, feeling hunger and thirst, the needs of the physical body — all of this belongs to the experience of Annamaya kosha (the sheath of our body that arises from what we eat and drink, that arises from our food).

At our current stage of evolution, we have not moved beyond Annamaya kosha. All of our awareness and observation are grounded in the experiences of the physical body. If I feel pain anywhere in my body, my concentration and awareness are diverted. If my body feels pleasure, a sense of wellbeing and balance, then my mind is free to pursue other directions and purposes in life. The body becomes the central point of both our attention and our attraction. Just imagine what it takes to raise the level of awareness beyond the experience of the body, beyond the physical dimension. Annamaya awareness occupies roughly seventy-five percent of our daily consciousness relative to the other koshas and experiences. Manomaya experience occupies roughly twenty percent of our awareness.

In Manomaya kosha, the mental body, we are generally aware of our needs, weaknesses, desires, and ambitions — what I like, what I don't like, what I want and what I don't. This scattering of mental energies reveals to us the superficiality of Manomaya kosha. I use the word "superficiality" because there is no true analytical process guiding the workings of Manomaya kosha. That is why yoga emphasizes one important point — be aware. Be aware, observe, understand everything in the right spirit. Hold a broad, positive outlook on life. This emphasis on being aware, on observing oneself, aims to widen the scope of Manomaya experience so that we become able to perceive and stabilize our mental experiences. Then we will be able to understand our needs, weaknesses, ambitions, and desires in proper perspective.

Pranamaya kosha, the dimension of energy, is likewise limited within us. How do we become aware of energy? By what faculty do we become aware of the energy that pervades everything around us, that exists within us? Generally, through feeling. If I stand before someone of a good nature, I say, "He has good energy." I receive something from him, but to actually experience the energy he expresses in the form of prana is, for us, practically impossible. So, of the remaining five percent of our conscious awareness, only about two percent is aware of Pranamaya kosha, because even awareness of energy is bound up with the experience of the mind, and through the mind it is not really possible to gain insight into — to deeply experience — energy itself.

Energy is composed of substances different from the energy of the mind. Mind is consciousness. The structure of the mind differs from the structure of prana. The external manifestation of energy in the body can be experienced in the form of heat. The internal manifestation of this bioenergy, prana, can be experienced in the form of electrical impulses linking the various centers of the brain. The psychic manifestation of energy is experienced as a current, a movement, flowing through the various nadis.

With the awakening and knowledge of Pranamaya kosha, sometimes one part of the body becomes very hot while another remains cold. Sometimes a trembling sensation arises throughout the whole body, coming from within and having nothing to do with the external environment. The purpose of many yogic practices, such as pranayama and other techniques, is to gradually build a subtle awareness of prana and its function within Annamaya kosha and Manomaya kosha, before it becomes conscious within Pranamaya kosha itself.

Next in order is Vijnanamaya kosha, the higher mental body. Vijnana can be explained as "the intuitive faculty of the mind." It refers to the level of the mind that is aware on both an inner and an outer level. Vijnanamaya kosha is, in fact, the spontaneous and intuitive awareness of the self, and it manifests in roughly two percent of our consciousness. Even here we often doubt whether the intuition we have received is genuine or false, because whatever comes from Vijnanamaya kosha is filtered and recognized by Manomaya kosha. So we wonder whether the instructions we received came from God or from the devil, and what we should do about it. Should we do what our mind tells us, or should we think twice and see what happens? Should we go forward, or should we hold back? This glimpse of intuition is very rare. It is experienced in states of deep meditation, when the rational boundaries and intellectual concepts of the mind are transcended, and when an intense self-awareness is born within. This intuition must be awakened, because it represents the other half of our personality — the unmanifest side of consciousness, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. So, ultimately, the goal of meditation is to enter the unmanifest, subtle dimension of the mind.

All this sounds rather complicated, because here in the West we talk about mindfulness, and on this subject there are plenty of books available even at a bookstore. But to recognize and truly understand it, we need, through yoga and Vedanta, to understand that we have awareness of our own awareness. Yet consciousness itself is made up of the conscious, the subconscious, the unconscious, the collective unconscious, the cosmic unconscious, the superconscious, the collective consciousness, and the cosmic consciousness.

Anandamaya kosha is the experience of bliss. This experience of bliss is not the same as what we experience during ordinary meditation. When it is experienced, it is indescribable, because here a fusion of the individual mind with the cosmic mind has taken place. The feeling is so intense and so powerful that the whole body, the whole being, is charged with this experience. The entire body undergoes a transformation. Every atomic particle of the body fills with vitality, joy, pleasure, and happiness, which can also be experienced physically. If you happen to touch the body of someone who has attained the experience of Anandamaya, you will feel a flow of energy, and your own consciousness will shift.

You may have heard many stories about saints or highly evolved beings who carry this charge with them and radiate these feelings onto everyone. A person may feel utterly downcast, but after spending even a short time with such an evolved being, they will leave that meeting smiling, seeing the world in a new light, with all their problems dissolved and finished. This is the state of siddha. Siddha means "a perfected being." A being who has become perfected cannot become imperfect again, because a change has taken place in every other dimension of experience — Vijnanamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, and Annamaya kosha.

This text is based on a passage from the book "Yoga Darshan" by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, together with my own understanding of a lecture by Osho and Swami Sarvapriyananda. Piyush Mittal – Nirmala Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda