• Pancha Kosha Meditation Sri Sri
• Panchakosha Meditation By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
• Kosha Meditation Script
• Pancha Kosha Meditation Art Of Living
• Panchakosha Meditation Script
• Pancha Kosha Meditation Kosha Meditation
• Panchakosha Meditation In Tamil

Pancha Kosha – The FiveTreasures / Cells

Pancha simply means five.

Vendanta Pancha kosha: Annamay, Pranmay, Manomay, Vigyanmay, Aanandmay, Chitta and Sat Kosh: Soul (atman or bliss) is wrapped inside five layers (Pancha kosha) of Arishadvarga: Hinduism identifies man in terms of 3 Bodies, 5 Koshas (sheaths), and 3 States. This page provides details about 5 Koshas. Manomaya kosha is the third of the five layers, or sheaths, of the body, which are collectively referred to as pancha kosha in yogic philosophy. Manomaya kosha is the mental sheath, composed of manas, meaning 'mind.' Instinctual consciousness, thoughts and perception are all linked to manomaya kosha.

‘Kosha’ can be translated as ‘sheath’ ‘shell’, ‘cell’, envelope’‘screen’, ‘case’ and even ‘treasure’[1];Sanskrit is a very subtle language. While this can be said of English, Sanskritwords can have profoundly more shades of meaning, even hidden esoteric values,depending on how they are used and placed within a text. It is usual to see koshatranslated simply as ‘sheath’, however as this has unfortunate associations inEnglish slang with condoms, it ceases to be a useful word in an educationalcontext. In this text it is not used.

The concepts that underpin modern Yoga were thought out in ancienttimes by Rishis (teachers) of an unknown culture and have been handeddown to the present day in various forms both verbal and written. TaittiriyaUpanishad is third amongst the very oldest texts[2]that elucidate the concept of five. All models of the mind have theirlimitations, as does this one, yet still it can help to separate out thestrands that comprise the human personality, to facilitate the development ofdiscriminatory wisdom and detachment. These cells are affected in varying waysby all life-style habits and, of course, by each of the Eight Limbs of Yoga[3]and the various many other forms of practice such as Mantra Yoga (repetition),Bhakti Yoga (devotion) and Gyana Yoga (reflection on wisdom) andany other form of thought and action. Everything contains within it its ownseeds of consequences.

Through this model, the human personality is seen as comprisingdiscrete yet interdependent and interactive shells that belong to the lowerspace (Dharakasha) made up of the first three human vortex of energy(chakra), namely Mooladhara, Swadhisthana and Manipura.[4]

Pancha Kosha

(The Sanskrit word ‘maya’ heretranslates as ‘full’; let there be no confusion with the Skt. ‘mayá’correctly written with an accent over the second a; this is a different wordentirely which translates as ‘illusion’. With 26 letters and 5 vowels, Englishis quite limited at transliterating Sanskrit, which has over 50 letters andover 10 vowels depending on how you define them)

Annamaya Kosha - The food-fullcell; - (Taittiriya Up. II. 2. i; also Paingala Up II.7.v)

‘Food’ can be understood in two ways in thiscontext; simply that as mammals we are food, we need food to survive, and ondeath we become food for other sentient beings and plants; or it can be takenfurther to include all material existence animate and inanimate, includingthings that do not have prana (life-force) such as stones and buildings[5].This makes it a vast concept, with two forms of matter:

ØIndependent Formsof Matter e.g. stone which is inert annamaya kosha, energy (maha prana)isunmanifested

ØDependant Formsof Matter that require interaction with other forms of matter (food, air etc.);here maha prana is active in different ways that are not always easy for us toperceive; e.g. a plant expresses annamaya kosha; pranamaya kosha - in the formof flowing fluids such as sap / pranic flow; and maybe some aspects of manomayakosha - such as stimulation /impulse to respond to environmental factorsoutside its own genome structure

It can be seen immediately, that theexpression of maha prana, this ‘fundamental energy’, is different betweenIndependent and Dependant Forms of Matter, creating a primary distinguishingfeature within the Universe. “The finding of matter as the ultimate reality isnot satisfactory… from materialism we pass to vitalism. But the principal oflife can not account for conscious objects”[6]A questioning mind quickly distinguishes the first three shells.

The individual is a body with needs andattributes, yet there is more – yoga can help us understand how to care for andmaintain the gross physical aspect of being human while leading us out of thedreary monotony of unfolding events, into awareness and reflection.

Pranamaya kosha - The energy-fullcell; -

Living within the Annamaya kosha, interactiveand dependant on it exists the vital body, the life-full treasure. Pranic flowscan be observed in blood, lymphatic and nervous circulations etc.; there alsoare flows between the pranamaya kosha and the physical body.

Sanskrit scholars believe that pranaoriginally meant breath and since life depends on breath it can to be used alsoto indicate the life-principle[7],the word is now used to indicate the vitality of life, wherever it appears.However beyond what can be perceived, Yoga discerns a still more subtle ‘greatlife force’ (maha prana) that is present in all aspects of the unlimitedUniverse(s) that pulsates in every tiny particle; science is finally beginningto catch up with the Rishis of ancient times: Sanskrit has a word for particlesthat are smaller than those that we have yet discovered param-anu. Thismaha prana manifests differently in the different koshas. For example animatebeings have 10 types of Prana flowing within them[8].

Basically prana can be understood as, thatunderlying principle, that distinguishes a living and Dependant Form of Matter,from what is a dead Dependant Form of Matter. It is a numinous force that ishard to define, but it is clearly absent when it has gone, because ‘death’occurs.

Tantra Yoga texts speak of 72,000 nadiflows of energy (700 charted meridians in Acupuncture; prana = Qi or chi).

A disease pattern can be detected in thevital body before it manifests in the gross body.

“It is in Pranamaya that energy blocks arisein the nadi, chakra and kundalini (major nadi) which create innumerableproblems within the personality.”[9]

Pancha Kosha Meditation Sri Sri

The individual is a vital collection ofpowerful energies that impart and maintain the health / vitality of the wholebeing; Yoga can assist us in learning how to detoxify our prana – leading to afuller quality of life, yet there is still more.

Manomaya kosha –Instinctive-mind-full cell

Manas the inner organ isdifferent from, and yet interactive with and dependent on the previous twotreasures. It is confined to the gross body governing the faculties ofperception and instinctual consciousness.

“As life outreaches matter so does mindoutreach life. There are forms of life without consciousness but there can beno consciousness without life”[10].Here the mind is seen as a rudimentary gathering together of perceptions. Theseare translated by the brain into responses that are instinctive, conditioned,emotional, rationalised and capable of creating lifelong habitual states withinwhich the human / sentient-being can pass from birth to death without seekingany further understanding, nor experience any sense of missing out. “Accordingto Yoga, thought takes place through subtle thought-energy channels,”[11]thought flows in the mental space chittakasha.

By developing awareness, Yoga can assist greatlyin releasing unconscious responses, which increase our suffering, governing ourlives through desire and fear –there is more to being human than meeting dailyneeds.

Vigyanamaya[12]Kosha – Understanding-full cell

Looking more deeply into what the mind is, itis possible to discern a level that is different from the previous, thoughinteractive with and dependent on the other treasures. This aspect of the selfunderstands - and is capable of inner growth, of ethics - it seeks to reachbeyond mundane existence into wisdom and subtle knowledge.

Panchakosha Meditation By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Each shell simultaneously relies on the onebelow and looks to the treasure above, especially Vigyanamaya kosha. Itactively seeks to move from the exoteric – the world in front of the eyes - tothe esoteric - the world within chittakasha, the mental space behind the eyes –where the “truths are not inferred, they are self-evident and can not beinvalidated by reason”[13].

The mind begins to find that it is possibleto go beyond the personality, to reach into a massive, morphogenic field[14]of intuition that is transcendent of the limitations of the gross and subtlebodies. Within this sheath of intellection, logic is bypassed by morphogenicresonance whereby all fields of understanding feed into and off each other withina ‘cosmic’ mind. As a result logic is often applied subsequent to thedevelopment of new understanding. Such mentation often occurs beyond language,when the subtle faculties of mind[15]have to interact with the external world they use the agency of Manas andarticulation can often be difficult.

Yoga can gradually develop the ability toseparate the observer from the observed, and perhaps finally, duality andseparation begin to diminish as the Self approaches transcendental awareness,beyond words.

It has been said that this kosha is composedof Buddhi[16]. TheSanskrit word Buddhi describes not only the capability of understandingof the exoteric world - that can be experienced - but also an esoteric aspectof mind that ‘understands’ unmanifest experiences that are carried thoughancestral agencies - similar to genetic code being carried in DNA – this iswhere the complex concepts of karma and samskara interact withbeing human. Practices that develop awareness of Vigyanamaya kosha can begin toburn through the chains of action and reaction, allowing the Self to break freefrom the constraints of its personality and move closer to realisation ofuniversality.

“We know we have a body; we can see andexperience the body. We know we have a mind; we can experience it but we cannotsee it. We know we have a soul, but we can neither experience it nor see it.So, there is a decreasing state of awareness. But when we go into Vigyanamayakosha though the process of sadhana (spiritual practice), the awarenessof the body and mind is lost, and the awareness of the subtle mind takes placealong with the awareness of the soul.”[17]

Anandamaya kosha; -

More subtle still, without which existencecan not be possible, the bliss-full sheath interacts with the others like thesun affecting our planet, we may not even have any awareness of it but alldepends on its presence. “Each sheath contains the next and ‘needs’ to moveinto it, so even intelligence does not exhaust the possibilities ofconsciousness and can not be its highest expression. Man’s awarenss is to beenlarged into a super-consciousness with illuminating joy and power…. Thehigher includes the lower and goes beyond it”[18]

This bliss-full Self, beyond reason, logic -even beyond words is glimpsed in flashes that happen and therefore are stillwithin experience even if indescribable. The wise Seeker gathers harmonythroughout the koshas, earnestly endeavouring to live from a place beyondduality, beyond separation, expressing the unity of ‘I am’

“Knowledge that makes us recognise andunderstand this unfolding of consciousness opens our awareness for themechanisms that make our hidden abilities become real.

“We generally assume that if we want toexplore new areas of experience, we first need to acquire knowledge and then toapply it. Yet in reality it works the opposite way. We first experiencesomething new and then only begin to search – more or less intuitivelyand often subconsciously – for concepts that may explain our new experiencesand connect them to our current understanding. This process is especially truefor all expansion of consciousness that make us perceive areas beyondour familiar sphere of life.

“Contrary to common belief most experiencesof expansion of consciousness are hardly ever clear and vivid enough to make usrecognise them the very moment they happen. Most insights into different (new)levels of consciousness are so brief that they appear like highly fleeting,almost unreal apparitions. Since we mostly cannot explain what we experienced, weusually store these events in the same place as all the other unresolvedexperiences that accompany our life and which we choose to ignore or forget aswell.

“Hidden deep inside our memory we thereforecarry a number of experiences we are barely aware of, but which neverthelesscontain vital information how higher, more advanced states of existence feellike.”[19]

“Simultaneously with everyinsight into the higher functions of our consciousness, we also receive theability to fully comprehend our experience. This happens automatically, nomatter if we are aware of it at the moment of insight or not. Experience andunderstanding are just two different aspects of the same event.

“Misinterpretation, prejudice, ignorance,doubt and social consensus usually prevent us from understanding and utilisingthese expansive experiences. Yet when we allow our intuitive orientationtowards growth to guide this process, these obstructive factors areautomatically filtered out. This kind of flawless intuitive insight makes usintuitively sense how every information we receive will influence our progress.It gives us the choice to accept and amplify only those impulses thatpositively lead us to more advanced stages of development.”[20]

Viewing the koshas from thereverse; -[21]

The first veil Anandamaya Kosha, shields usfrom the Divine Monad Atman that which inhabits the GalacticUniverse(s). This kosha hides the atman within the Sheath of the Sun orSpiritual Soul; in this form the atman can range over the whole solar system.

Kosha Meditation Script

The second veil is Vigyanamaya kosha, whereatman condenses into the Higher Mind or Manasaputric Soul [Manasputrik =‘mentally I have adopted’ / son of the mind (?)], which may pass anywhere inthe planetary chain to which Earth belongs. These two are not bound by time andspace.

The third veil, Manomaya kosha, is the LowerMind, the desire-principle or the Human Soul; this is the human psychologicalaspect that interacts with this planet in real time and space. All three caninteract with the morphogenic field, whereby when one learns, all can learn,depending on where they place their thought-channels.

The fourth veil condensing the Atman isPranamaya kosha, the Vital-astral Soul or the Animal Monad.

In Annamaya kosha the Atman appears as annathe fundamental principle of matter anu from which all that ‘is’, ismade and from which the gross body that houses the other koshas is built.

Personality and the Koshas;-[22]

Avidya can be translated as stress,although it is more usually understood as ignorance. Indian philosophydescribes an underlying stress anadi avidya or moola avidya thatcontribute to a basic restlessness and boredom that stirs us to becomeinteractive with our surroundings. However when this restless energy ismisunderstood, mishandled or misdirected it can lead to inner disharmony,hyperactivity or even violence. External factors also feed into the basicstress, but it is considered that the underlying moola avidya comprises thegreater part of total stress. The various paths of Yoga can calm the distress,address the whole person, and draw out the divine potential that the Rishi’sfirmly believe all humans posses. The subjective well-being of the individualpersonality depends of which aspect of the koshas are being ‘fed’

Emotions and the Koshas; -[25]

While the first three koshas have thepotential of both positive and negative emotions (duality), as the continuum ofawareness moves, these extremes gradually come into balance, even into calm,unperturbed harmony; with the deepening of awareness of Vigyanamaya; as therealisation of Ananda maya dawns, the individual experiences only the positivestate and is at peace with all, in harmony with all that is and does notexperience separateness.

Swasthyam describes being in agrounded state of self. Using the paradigm of thought-channels, it becomespossible to direct the location of placement of the sense of swasthyam, ratherlike the idea of the placing of ‘intention’ or ‘attention’, or even, “As theheart seeks, so it shall find”.

Awareness is the key.

References; -

Pancha Kosha Meditation Art Of Living

[File: PanchaKosha Yogic Psychology v 2_0.doc; Save Date: 22/02/03 12:20 PM]

AOL Course – Day 2 – Panchakosha Meditation

Tuesday 6:10 PM

The teacher now tells us why don’t we all meditate. He says meditation is not concentration and you can’t practise meditation. But it happens. The practices taught in AOL can lead us to meditation. He said Guruji Ravishankar has taught a powerful meditation called Pancha Kosha meditation which we are all going to learn now. I am happy I will learn one more meditation and add it to my kitty. I am impatient what is this meditation with such a beautiful name.

Teacher explains there are five sheaths of our being. I immediately want to show off my knowledge and said names of the Koshas. Teacher is not happy. He frowned at me. I feel bad. I think I should control myself. When teacher speaks I should listen choicelessly. No need to show off your knowledge otherwise teacher will never like me.

Teacher said yes you are right the pancha koshas are – Annamaya Kosha (Body), Pranamaya Kosha (Prana), Manomaya Kosha (Mind), Vijnanamaya Kosha (Intuition-Intellect-Insight) and Anandamaya (Bliss) Kosha. He explained the Koshas a little bit sometimes forgot the names. Obviously he had forgotten many things taught in his teacher training.

Now what is this Panchakosha meditation:

We sit and close our eyes

First we become aware of all the sound, noises around us and listen without judgement. Vehicle sounds et all.

Next we are aware of our Body for sometime

Next we are aware of our breathing

Panchakosha Meditation Script

Next we are aware of our Mind and thinking

Next we are aware of our emotions

Next we are aware of Silence

Pancha Kosha Meditation Kosha Meditation

All in 20 minutes. I was wondersing how can i be aware of my emotions when I don’t have any in this 20 minutes. But I understand the purport of this meditation is awareness, mindfullness. Had practised some of these from Vignana Bhairava Tantra earlier.

Meditation is over. I am also feeling calm. Teacher asks us to open our eyes. He asks us how you feel. I tell I am feeling calm and peaceful. He says good. Another middle aged guy mentioned he was able to see a blue pearl. Teacher did not know how to react. He became silent and then he says be aware of it. I think I like this middle aged guy. He is intresting and cranky maybe I should talk to him later.

Panchakosha Meditation In Tamil

Its 6:30 now.