PĀNCHAKOŚA / THE 5 SHEATHS OF BODY

The human body is our vehicle to express ourselves in the world. But little do we know what the human body is. Yogis have studied the body for thousands of years and have developed a basic philosophy around it. The principal composition of the human body is of five ‘vessels’ or koshas:

• ANNAMAYA KOSHA – the Body of Nourishment – Physical Body
• PRĀNAMAYA KOSHA – the Energy Body – Astral Body 
• MANOMAYA KOSHA – the Mental Body – Astral Body
• VIGYĀNAMAYA KOSHA – the Intellectual Body – Astral Body
• ĀNANDAMAYA KOSHA – the Body of Joy – Causal Body

Our KARMAS (actions) and SAMSKĀRAS (memories and experiences) are stored in the Koshas. They form the partitions between the individual soul and the universal Self. Liberation – MOKSHA – therefore means to release the Ātmā from the limitations of the Koshas. In order to become one with something we must develop the same qualities as that with which we wish to unite. Until we have released ourselves from the Koshas, while we still hang onto our personal ego and continue to identify with the little “i”, we cannot become one with the Infinite.

The 5 Koshas are products of various gross, subtle and causal elements. The elements themselves have no being on their own. They depend on Awareness (Satya) for their existence. Hence the 5 Koshas are Mithya; they have a dependent reality. You do not have to remove Mithya to recognize Satya; you just have to remove the error of taking Mithya as Satya. You do not have to remove wave to see the water, you only have to recognize that wave is nothing but water. Similarly you do not have to remove the 5 Koshas to know you’re the Self. The Self is to be recognized as free from the attributes of Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya and Anandamaya Koshas.

THE FOOD SHEATH – ANNAMĀYĀKOŚA

In this food vessel the physical being is bound by birth and death. He ages, becomes sick, deteriorates and dies. This vessel is composed of the elements earth, water and fire (their seats are respectively in Mūlādhāra, Svādhiṣṭhāna and Maṇipūra chakra. Earth and water are supplied by food. Fire transforms these foods into useful materials to maintain the physical body. The element earth in the body is balanced by Mūlādhāra chakra (base chakra), water by Svādhiṣṭhāna chakra (sex chakra), and fire by Maṇipūra chakra (navel chakra). The food vessel also contains the Indriyas or knowledge and action organs. The knowledge organs are the ears, the skin, the eyes, the tongue and the nose.

The action organs are the mouth (speaking), the hands (grasping), the feet (walking), the reproduction organs (reproduction), the anus (excretion).

“The first dimension is the material body, Annamāyākośa. Anna means ‘food’, ‘manifest matter’, maya means ‘full of’. There is no greater miracle than the human body. Although, scientifically, we look at the physical body as different systems which control the bodily functions, yoga says that these functions are nothing but manifestations of the interaction between energy and consciousness. As we begin to experience the inner bodies, energy and consciousness manifest in a subtler form. So Annamāyākośa is a dimension of existence in which we experience matter which is a combination of energy and consciousness.” (By Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati)