Panchkosha
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Every soul has five koshas (sheaths) around it. The first sheath is the environment – Annarasamaya kosha. If the atmosphere is filled with poisonous gas, can your body exist? No! It is because there is air so your body can exist. Anna means food and rasa mean juicy. The outer environment is juicy; it attracts your eyes, captures your nose by fragrance, and enthrals you with sound. All this is rasa. The environment is full of juice and food. They are also food for the body; for example, sight is food for eyes, peace and joy are food for the soul.
The second sheath is the physical body – Pranamaya kosha which is the life force energy. Our physical body has value because of prana because you are breathing. The third sheath is Manomaya kosha, which is the mind, thoughts, and emotions. The fourth sheath is Vignanmaya kosha, which is subtler than the mind. It is the field of intuitive feelings. It is something that is beyond thought, beyond reason. There is a body inside you, from where all innovation and creativity comes from. It is from the Vignyanmaya kosha that every discovery, innovation, new art, poems, come from and not from the Manomaya kosha. The fifth sheath is Anandamaya kosha, the blissful body.
Actually, the blissful body is much bigger than the physical body, which is why whenever you are happy you feel a sense of expansion. When you are unhappy, you feel like you are being crushed. These are the five levels of body that one experiences.
