Panchakosha (पञ्चकोशाः)

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A Kosha (also Kosa; Sanskrit कोश, IAST: kośa), usually rendered "sheath", is a covering of the Atman, or Self according to Vedantic philosophy. There are five Koshas, and they are often visualised as the layers of an onion.

As the scabbard hides the sword, the outer shell covers the tamarind fruit, the coat covers the body, so also these five sheaths hide the Atman. The Yoga path of Self-realization is one of progressively moving inward, through each of these sheaths, so as to experience the eternal center of consciousness

Origins

The five sheaths (pancha-kosas) from gross to fine are

• Annamaya kosha – food – physical – the five elements
• Pranamaya kosha – breath – vital – The five Karma Indriyas are contained in the Pranamaya Kosha.
• Manomaya kosha – impressions – outer mind – The five Jnana Indriyas are contained in the Manomaya Kosha.
• Vijnanmaya kosha – ideas – intelligence – directed mental activity
• Anandamaya kosha – experiences – deeper mind – memory, subliminal and superconscious mind

The Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya Koshas go to constitute the subtle or astral body or Linga Sarira. The Anandamaya Kosha forms the causal body or Karana Sarira.

It is the innate tendency of the human mind to identify the Self with the five Koshas. The ignorant man identifies the Self with the physical body. Others identify the Self or Atman with Prana, mind, intellect, or the Karana Sarira according to their various grades of intelligence. The Atman transcends the five sheaths. It is entirely distinct from the five sheaths.

The five sheaths

Annamaya kosha

Annamaya Kosha is this gross body. This is the densest sheath. The body is nourished by food. It dies without food. It is subject to six changes (Shad-bhava-vikara, viz., birth, existence, growth, change, decay and death).

You will have to pierce through these five sheaths if you want to get knowledge of the Self. These five sheaths form a cave (Guha) and the Atman is hidden in the cave. The self-effulgent Atman shines in the midst of Pranas within the heart. A detailed knowledge and comprehensive understanding of the five sheaths is an indispensable requisite, if you want to attain Self-realisation and practise the 'Neti-neti' doctrine of Vedanta.

The following arguments will prove clearly that the Atman is entirely distinct from the Annamaya sheath or physical body. The physical body is a mass of skin, flesh, blood, bones and lots of other filthy things. It can never be eternally pure, self-existent Brahman. It does not exist prior to birth or posterior to death. It lasts only for a short period. It is full of parts. It is ever changing. It has a beginning and an end. It is inert. It is the effect of Tamoguna. It is the combination of five elements. How can it be one's own Self, the silent witness of changes in all things?

There is no consciousness in a dead body. If the gross body is the Self or Atman, the corpse also would be as conscious as the living body. The physical body is dead as it were during the dreaming state. The physical body is not eternal. It disintegrates after death. As the physical body has a beginning and an end, it is an effect like the jar. The body cannot be the Self, because one continues to live even when particular limbs are gone, even when his legs and hands are amputated. That the Self is entirely different from the body, its characteristics, activities and states of which it is the silent witness is self-evident and needs no demonstration or proof. How can the inert body, being a pack of bones, covered with flesh and full of filth, and highly impure, he the self-luminous, self-existent, intelligent Self, the Knower, which is ever distinct from it?

The foolish man identifies himself with a mass of flesh, fat, skin, bones and filth, while the man of discrimination knows that his Self is distinct from this perishable body. The stupid man thinks that he is the body. A Pundit who has read some religious books identifies himself with a mixture of body and soul, while the liberated sage regards the eternal, unchanging Atman as his Self. So long as the learned Pundit does not abandon his erroneous identification with this unreal, perishable body, there is no hope of salvation for him, even though he is a scholar in Vedanta. The identification with the physical body alone is the root cause which brings the misery of birth and death and its concomitant evils. Therefore destroy at once this identification. There will be no more chance for rebirths. O ignorant worldly man! Give up Moha for this physical body of filth, flesh and hones. Identify yourself with the pure Brahman, the Self of all and thus attain Immortality and everlasting Peace.

There is an illusory connection between Annamaya Kosha and Atman through Anyonya Adhyasa or mutual super-imposition by which the Dharmas or attributes of the former appear on the latter and the Dharmas of the latter appear on the former.

In Indian Logic there are two kinds of relationship, viz., Samavaya and Samyoga. Samavaya Sambandha is inseparable. This is the relationship that exists between a man and his limbs, a person and his qualities, the actor and his actions. There is no Samavaya Sambandha between Atman and the five Koshas. Samyoga Sambandha is the relationship that exists between a drum and the stick. There cannot be any Samyoga Sambandha between Atman and the five sheaths, as Atman is not a substance that is made up of the five elements. But the relationship that exists between Atman and the five sheaths is only the Adhyasa (illusory or superimposed) relationship that exists between a rope and a snake or between mother-of-pearl and silver or between a post in darkness and a thief, or between the sky and the blue colour. Is the illusion caused by one to another, or is it reciprocal? It must be reciprocal (Anyonya Adhyasa), because Atman and Ahamkara go hand in hand and are referred one to the other reciprocally in worldly parlance.

The mutual illusory relationship that exists between Atman and Annamaya Kosha can be clearly understood from the daily talks of men. People say: I am a man. I am a male. I live. I grow. I shall die. I am a boy. I am a grown up man. I am an old man. I am a Brahmin. I am a Kshatriya. I am a Vaishya. I am a Sudra. I am a Brahmachari. I am a householder. I am a Sannyasi. I am an Indian. I am an Englishman. I am a Pundit. I am an illiterate man. I am sick. I am poor. I am fat. I am lean. I am sickly. I am healthy. Here all the properties of Annamaya sheath are ascribed by delusion to Atman. The characteristics of Satchidananda are attributed falsely to the Annamaya Kosha as you see from such illustration: My body is. My body shines. My body is dear. You can clearly understand now that there exists a mutual illusory relationship between Atman and the Annamaya Kosha. Therefore the Atman is not Annamaya Kosha. This food-sheath is not yours. This is gross body. You are the Self. The Self is distinct from the food-sheath, because it is the Knower of the sheath.

Pranamaya kosha

Pranamaya means composed of prana, the vital principle, the force that vitalizes and holds together the body and the mind. It pervades the whole organism, its one physical manifestation is the breath. As long as this vital principle exists in the organisms, life continues. Coupled with the five organs of action it forms the vital sheath. In the Vivekachudamani it is a modification of vayu or air, it enters into and comes out of the body.

Manomaya kosha

Manomaya means composed of manas or mind. The mind (manas) along with the five sensory organs is said to constitute the manomaya kosa. The manomaya kosa, or “mind-sheath” is said more truly to approximate to personhood than annamaya kosa and pranamaya kosha. It is the cause of diversity, of I and mine. Sankara likens it to clouds that are brought in by the wind and again driven away by the same agency. Similarly, man’s bondage is caused by the mind, and liberation, too, is caused by that alone.

Vijnanamaya kosha

Vijnanamaya means composed of vijnana, or intellect, the faculty which discriminates, determines or wills. Chattampi Swamikal defines vijnanamaya as the combination of intellect and the five sense organs. It is the sheath composed of more intellection, associated with the organs of perception. Sankara holds that the buddhi, with its modifications and the organs of knowledge, form the cause of man’s transmigration. This knowledge sheath, which seems to be followed by a reflection of the power of the cit, is a modification of prakrti. It is endowed with the function of knowledge and identifies itself with the body, organs etc.

This knowledge sheath cannot be the supreme self for the following reasons;

• It is subject to change.
• It is insentient.
• It is a limited thing.
• It is not constantly present.

Anandamaya kosha

Main article: Anandamaya kosha

Anandamaya means composed of ananda, or bliss. In the Upanishads the sheath is known also as the causal body. In deep sleep, when the mind and senses cease functioning, it still stands between the finite world and the self. Anandamaya, or that which is composed of Supreme bliss, is regarded as the innermost of all. The bliss sheath normally has its fullest play during deep sleep: while in the dreaming and wakeful states, it has only a partial manifestation. The blissful sheath (anandamaya kosha) is a reflection of the Atman which is truth, beauty, bliss absolute.

The following entry is for the utility of Hindu aspirants who are familiar with Panchakosha:

Just as each of the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, and ether) appear in corresponding subtlety among each of the five senses so too the intellect cognizes ever subtler causes and effects at play through each of the five sheaths.

For example, the annamayakosha, the coarsest sheath, is based in the earth element, which is guarded by Ganesha, while the very subtlest sheath Anandamaya is based in the quanta/ether element, and is guarded by a black disc of utter darkness over the sun, which can be removed only by Ganesha.

Awareness of that reflection of atman/self within the most subtle sheath, Anandamayakosha, however, is but the foundation for discerning that which the elements, energies, senses, and kosha serve. To that end, one re-examines the components of the five koshas in daily devotional meditation after recitation of twenty-one OM, viz, one OM per each of the five elements, the five pranas, the five indriyas, and the five kosha, equaling twenty OM, then a twenty-first OM is offered for the ineffable, such that a spiritual discernment of ever-increasing subtlety arises in the purified intellect, alaya nirvijnana, the womb of the tathagata, wherein silence ensues and clarity blossoms.

See also

• Three bodies
• Mandukya Upanishad
• Advaita Vedanta
• Chakra
• Kundalini

External links

• Swami Adiswarananda explanation of kośas
• ATMABODHA, by AdiSankara, translated by Swami Chinmayananda

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