Five sheaths … Pancha Kosha

Pancha Kosha or Panchakosha means five sheaths … These five sheaths are of Annamaye Kosha (or food sheath or physical body), Pranamaye Kosha (or the vitality sheath or vital air sheath), Manomaye Kosha (or the body of mind or Mind sheath or mind vehicle), Vijyanmaye Kosha (or the body of knowledge or knowledge sheath or the vehicle of knowledge) and Anandmaye Kosha (or Bliss sheath or causal body or Antahkarana Chatushtaya) … Of these five sheaths, the latter four shall have a dedicated topic each …

 

AA … Five sheaths … Pancha Kosha (Panch Kosha) … Starting from Annamaye Kosha (food sheath) …

Since this is a very-very vast topic if I were to discuss it fully, so out of no choice and to save a few thousand plus pages of writing on these five sheaths (i.e. Pancha Kosha) I shall be keeping these discussions as brief as is reasonably possible, but without compromising on the main aspects which cannot be avoided in our discussions …

This topic and its four parts are to discuss the five sheaths that are existent within each aspirant’s microcosm and these are the five sheaths which make any aspirant’s microcosm …

Like all previous and later topics, these five sheaths are also described as they were self realized …

But at the same time, I have refrained from discussing those aspects which are related to the path of winning over the inherent afflictions (Vritti) of these five sheaths and this itself is due to the fact that my eternal guide (Sanatan Gurudeva Sriman Naaraayana) who also is the eternal guide of every aspirant and is also present within the aspirant’s microcosm has told me not to be a Guru for anyone else … Thus to know the path of evolving beyond the afflictions of these five sheaths, interested aspirant’s would need to learn it from the authentic traditional lineage holding teachers (Acharya’s) of Chatur Aamnaya Peetha (or in other words, the four Vedic monasteries or Vyasa Peetha) … I had already stated this fact in an earlier which has the headers of “Where to go” …

With above as a base, I commence this set of topics …

 

Explaining the term Panch Kosha …

  • Pancha means five …
  • Kosha means sheath …
  • Thus Pancha Kosha means five sheaths …

 

Within their incremental subtleties, these five sheaths are as follows …

 

AA-1 … Food sheath (Annamaye Kosha) …

This is the physical vehicle or the physical body that is held by every microcosm …

Since this text is to only describe those inner aspects and since this food sheath (Annamaye Kosha) is not related to suchness, so we shall not discuss this sheath … Plus it is too obvious due to its inherently visible nature …

But at the same time the final self realization when inwardly meditating upon the food sheaths are as follows …

 

Mahabhoot Brahma

Which means …

Five macro-elements are a self expression, self manifestation and self presence of the same attributeless-infinite Absolute Being

But above is only after the macro-elemental nature which is present within the aspirant merges into her macrocosmic primordial, primary and parental causes …

 

And in addition to above is the self realization of a primordial Vedic statement …

Guna Brahma

Which means

Three attributes (In Vedic and Yogic lore’s, these three are also told as Triguna) are a self expression, self manifestation and self presence of the same attributeless-infinite Supreme Being (Nirgun Nirakaar Brahman) …

But above is only after the three primary attributes which are present within the aspirant merge into her respective macrocosmic primordial, primary and parental causes …

And many other self realizations …

 

AA-2 … Pranamaya Kosha or Vitality sheath or Vital air sheath or Pranamaye Kosha …

Pranamaye Kosha of Sanskrit language eventually refers to (or means) the Vital air sheath

This Pranamaye Kosha (or Vitality sheath) which in other words is also written as Pranamaya Kosha is composed of the following …

  • Panch Prana … Which means as the five vital airs …
  • Panch Upa Prana … Which means as the five sub-vital airs …

Each of vital and sub-vital airs are doing their own specific jobs and are operating in the physical vehicle (of the microcosm and also the macrocosmic creation) within their own specific purposes so as to run the bodied systems (or each microcosm and the macrocosm) …

This is the sheath that renders drives to the other sheath’s so as to make them reach their respective destinations …

Prior to the primordial state that was when these Prana (Vital and sub-vital airs) had divided into above mentioned 10 aspects, these Prana’s were one and the same …

As the Maker’s Makings started originating in its primordial subtle state from where the grosser states of the same Maker’s Makings were self originated, these Prana’s also started dividing into above mentioned 10 parts … This division of Prana’s is very subtly stated within Vedic lore as follows …

Ekohum Bahusyami

Which means …

“I am one, yet I became many”

 

And since the Yogic lore’s which itself are the timeless base of Vedas which itself is the root of Dharma, is also resting upon above statement, thus the paths of entirety of sects of Sanatan Dharma cannot even be any other than what is stated below …

Intrinsically pluralistic yet it stays essentially monist

This aspect of way of like i.e. pluralistic monism, itself is of the Maker’s Makings … Thus unlike the recent sects and beliefs which came by during the last nine millenniums; Sanatan Dharma is primarily resting within the purviews of the Maker’s Makings …

 

And even when above is absolutely true, yet since pluralistic monism only leads to Absolute Monism (i.e. Vedanta), so all paths of Sanatan Dharma are also related to the same Absolute Monism and thus the end result of all these paths is naught but an Absolute monism itself …

And since Absolute Monism is eventually based upon an Absolute-Non-Dualism (Advaita), so finally all lore’s and paths of Sanatan Dharma are leading to the same Absolute Non-dualism (Advaita) itself …

Thus the end result of all paths of Sanatan Dharma is none other than a realization which is based upon the Absolute Monism as is of the Absolutely Non-Dual being … That Absolutely non-dual being is the one who has been addressed as the Nirgun Nirakaar Brahm (attributeless infinite being or Brahman) in Vedas …

And since that absolutely non-dual being is attributeless and infinite, so that absolutely non-dual being is also unborn-genderless one beyond genders and all other classifications and thus is the ever-same eternal one …

Within Sanatan Dharma, that ever same attributeless infinite being or in other words, the absolutely non-dual being is also the one who is also addressed through a variety of words like Parabrahman, Brahman, Swaprakash, Parambrahma, Swayam Prakash, Paramshiva, Parmeshwara, Paramatman, Parmeshwari, Param Devi, Adi Parashakti, etc-etc …

It is to above fact that the inwardly moving meditation on Prana’s eventually leads to … And at that stage of self realization is also self realized the essential statement as written below …

Prana Brahma

Which means …

Prana is the primordial and timeless self expression, self manifestation, self presence of the Absolute Being (Parabrahman) and thus it is the Absolute Being (Brahman) itself

This is the final self realization within Prana Sadhana or meditation on Prana

When the Prana returns back to its above stated primordially original condition activates within the aspirants microcosm, then it is one and the same Prana as is stated in earlier statement of “Ekohum Bahusyami” …

Within this primordially original condition of Prana and just as it was stated earlier, the 10 Prana’s are one and the same because they are non-dually unioned to each other whilst they rest within a state of perfect macro-neutrality i.e. equanimity towards allness and her each part, which as such is the same condition as was prior the Prana divided itself into above discussed 10 parts … And it is to this primordially original state of Prana that the above mentioned statement of “Prana Brahma” relate to …

 

Proceeding further …

And finally is self realized that the Prana itself is an intrinsic partless-part of the Pristine-Divinity (Maa Adi Parashakti) of the Absolute-Being and where the Pristine-Divinity herself is the “supreme mother of allness (Param Mata or Paramdevi or Parmeshwari)” …

All divinity of the macrocosmic creation which is within and is also beyond any aspirant’s microcosm, is none other than a self expression, self manifestation and self presence of the same Supreme Mother of all that ever is (or could ever be) …

 

Thus is the self realization of what was told in Vedic lore as follows …

Devi (Pristine Divinity) is Deva (Absolute Being) and Deva is Devi

Shakti is Shiva and Shiva is Shakti

Prakriti is Purusha and simultaneously, Purusha is Prakriti … And both are eternal

And both eternally present within each aspirant’s physical vehicle (or food sheath as is being discussed here) …

 

AA-3 … Manomaya Kosha or Mind sheath or Manomaye Kosha  …

Manomaye Kosha of Samskrit language which eventually refers to (or means) the Mind sheath … This can also be written as Manomaya Kosha

As far as the subtler hierarchies of the five sheaths of our current discussions stand in the timeless times of Maker’s Makings, Mind sheath is the middle sheath …

And being the middle sheath, it is also the better mediums that are available within any aspirant to self realize all other sheaths that are present inside the aspirant’s microcosm and are also present in the greater macrocosmic creation

It essentially was due to above stated reason of mind being the middle sheath and thus being the better of mediums to know allness that is within and beyond any microcosm, that mind control became an intrinsically essential part of all Yoga Tantra … And since Yoga itself is the base of Vedas, so mind control was also deemed to be an intrinsic and essential part of all paths that directly or indirectly relate to the Vedic lore …

Due to this reason, this is one of the most important sheaths to be discussed here … And when the mind merges to its own macrocosmic parental cause i.e. Ahum Naad (as was discussed in an earlier topic of Aghora face of Sadashiva” then t such a stage is also self realized the Vedic statement as written below …

Mann Brahma

Which means

Mind is a self expression, self manifestation, self presence of the Absolute being

Above is statement is the final realization when any aspirant meditates upon the mind … But at the same time, this self realization is only arrived after the stage where the mind has already united and thence dissolved into its own cause i.e. Aghora face of Shiva (about who we have discussed in an earlier topic and where we had also addressed Aghora face as Ahum Naad or in other words, the Sound of Ahum) …

 

AA-4 … Knowledge sheath or Vijyanmaya Kosha or Vijyanmaye Kosha or Buddhi Kosha (or sheath of Buddhahood or Buddhata Kosha) …

Vijyanmaye Kosha means the “knowledge sheath” … This is also written as Vijyanmaya Kosha

This is the sheath of knowledge that is intrinsic to each cell of the physical vehicle or this could even be termed as one’s own intrinsic cellular intelligence …

And this sheath is also responsible for analysis of all that is heard, known through reading or direct cognition or that which is understood through self-analysis (i.e. your own self analysis or the self analysis of a wise one who imparts that knowledge based upon his or her own self realized wisdom) …

The final realization during meditations and the further stage of accomplishment of the knowledge sheath (or in other words, Vijyanmaye Kosha) is as stated below …

Jnana Brahma (or Gyan Brahma)

Which means …

Knowledge is a is a self expression, self manifestation, self presence of the Absolute being

And thus since the self realized knowledge itself is of the Absolute being (or Brahman), so it in fact is Brahman only …

 

AA-5-A … Bliss sheath or Anandmaye Kosha or Causal vehicle …

Anandmaye Kosha means as the bliss body or the body of root nature or the Bliss sheath … In simple words, this can be termed as causal body … And in Vedic knowledge systems, this is also addressed as Antahkarana Chatushtaya, which means fourfold inner subtle tool …

This to one’s own innermost base nature or one’s own causal nature or ones inner of all natures, which itself nothing but an eternal blissful state …

Within the middle of this sheath, is self realized the self luminous, self-existent, self-sustaining, eternal witness of all that is undergone by the beingness … This eternal witness is the ever detached one, even when it is within the aspirant itself and thus it, never causes or reaps anything …

This eternal witness is the Atman of the aspirant …

Atman is only the eternal witness of all that ever happens or is happening to any aspirant …

And at the finality of realization, this eternal witness itself is realized to be none other than the eternal witness of allness, I.e. the attributeless infinite (or Nirgun Nirakaar Brahm) …

Thus state is also the proof of one’s own inherent and intrinsically essential nature, that is none other than a blissful state and hence the name of this sheath was told as “Bliss Sheath) …

But this sheath is a part of macrocosmic nature and this it cannot even be deemed to be the finality of realization when only the Anandmaye Kosha is self realized and the middle part of that Bliss sheath which as such is the self luminous innermost essence or Atman) of the aspirant is missed out within the self realizations …

The final knowledge which is gained through the self realization of the central self luminous part (i.e. innermost essence of the aspirant or in other words, the aspirant’s Atman) of the Bliss sheath was subtly stated by Vedic sages (Rishi) through a variety of statement, two of which are as written below …

Chetan Brahma

Which means …

Supreme consciousness is the Absolute Being

 

And as below …

Satchidanand Brahm

Which means …

Truth Conscious Bliss is the Absolute

 

And also as …

Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahm

Which means …

Truth Knowledge Infinite is the Absolute Being

 

Comparing above two statements (of Satchidanand and the next statement of Satyam Jnanam Anantam) so as to find their unity and thence prove that they relate to the same Absolute Being (Nirgun Nirakaar or Brahman) only …

  • The words Truth are common in both of them …
  • Conscious cannot even be conscious unless it based upon self knowledge … Thus in their finality, these two words of above two statement are essentially meaning the same thing only …
  • Bliss cannot be bliss unless it is infinite in its nature … Thus in their finality, these two words of above two statement are essentially meaning the same thing only …
  • Due to above, the above statement of “Satchidanand Brahm” and also the statement of “Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahm” are subtly referring to the same Absolute being or Brahman …
  • This is the final self realization through the central self luminous state (which as such is none other than the aspirant’s innermost essence or eternally detached witness within an aspirant or the Atman) …
  • Thus meditation upon the Bliss sheath is also a path to self realization of one’s own innermost essence (or the eternally detached witness that resides within the aspirant or the Atman) …

 

AA-5-A … Limitations of discussion on Bliss sheath … In this text I shall not be discussing the bliss sheath fully … So if anybody wants to know it, then they are advised to learn it from authentic teachers (i.e. authentic Jagadguru Shankaracharya or their deputed Acharya’s) … I shall only be discussing this sheath in a very brief manner and with a few painted sketches, which a such do not denote the completeness or fullness of that knowledge which relates to the bliss sheath or Anandmaye Kosha

During meditations upon and within the Bliss sheath and after the central self-luminous core is self realized by an aspirant, then that aspirant also knows the essence of a Vedic statement which was told as follows by those Rishi’s who had known the innermost essence (i.e. the inner detached witness or Atman) within their own self realizations …

When the sole-eternal-witness is all that remains, then that aspirant also ends up self-realizing the innermost meaning of a Vedic statement as written below …

 

ब्रह्म सत्यम जगन मिथ्या, जिवो ब्रम्हैव नापरः

Brahm Satyam Jagan-Mithya Jivo-Brahmaiva Na-Parah

Brahman is the truth world is an illusion, Jeeva (or Microcosm) is Brahman

 

Discussing the word “Jagan (or Jagad)” of above statement … This word means “that which moves or that which is changeful or that which has a motion” … So this word, also means the macrocosm and also relates to the microcosm (i.e. universe, planes of existence, worlds, beingness and entities) … And thus, is word also includes all that is animate, inanimate and supra-animate entities …

That which moves (i.e. that which is changeful) is naught but an illusion because Nirgun Nirakaar Brahm (i.e. the eternally unchangeful and thus eternally non-moving) is the only truth …

And basis meditation upon above great statement of Vedic sages is also self realized the innermost essence of the four mega statement of the four Vedas that were also told by Vedic sages and whose finality could be stated thus …

“Essence (Atman) that is within any aspirant” itself is the “final essence of allness (Brahman)”

Above is the final self realization during meditations upon the Bliss sheath or Anandmaye Kosha which itself is the “fourfold inner subtle tool (or Antahkarana Chatushtaya)” of the same Vedic lore …

 

Continues …

Share
error: Content is protected !!