Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
ANCIENT
INTUITIVE
AUTHENTIC
LIFE-CHANGING
Traditional, energetic practises, for anyone, anywhere.
Hello and welcome back. In today's episode, we explore the profound concept of prana and its connection to the five koshas. According to yoga, a human being is capable of experiencing five dimensions of existence, which are called pancha kosha or five sheaths. Or more commonly known as simply KOSHAS. At any given time, a person lives in these five areas, which range from obvious to subtle. The 5 koshas are: 1) annamaya kosha, 2) pranamaya kosha, 3) manomaya kosha, 4) vinanamaya kosha and 5) anandamaya kosha.
The body, or annamaya kosha, is the first layer or level of experience, its the one closest to our body. The word anna means "food," and the word maya means "made up of." This is the most basic level of life. It is called the food sheath because it needs food, water, and air to live. This sheath also needs prana to work. You can live without food for up to six weeks, water for six days, and air for six minutes, but if you take away your prana, you will die right away. Now the 6 minutes without air is arguably for the everyday person, as there are free-divers in the world regularly holding their breath for 10 minutes (hello Mr 10 minutes), as well as others that can hold it for up to 25 minutes, like the current world record holder, Mr Budimir Šobat.
But I digress, back to the Koshas.
The second layer is the energy field of a person, called pranamaya kosha. Here, the level of experience is more subtle than the physical body, which it permeates and maintains. The pranamaya kosha is what yoga and prana vidya are based on. Prana Vidya is the practise of manipulating the panic forces or energy in the body, which is certainly a topic for another time. Pranamaya kosha is also commonly called the physical body's pranic, astral, and etheric equivalent. It's almost the same size and shape as its body, but it can grow and shrink.
In the same way that a person's physical body looks like a person, this vital self also looks like a person.
People who can see into the future see the pranic body as a bright, glowing cloud or aura around the body that comes from inside the physical body, kind of like the sun shining from behind the moon as it passes in front of it. Using a Kirlian high voltage device, scientists have seen similar results on film, such as auric photographs that are ever popular. The pranic body is more subtle and takes longer to break down than the physical body. This is why a severed limb's energy field can be felt for a long time after the limb has been removed.
The 3rd kosha is manomaya kosha and it is the mental dimension. It connects the outside and inside worlds. It sends the events and feelings of the outside world to the intuitive body, and it sends the effects of the causal and intuitive bodies to the gross body.
The 4th kosha is, vijnanamaya kosha, which is the psychic level of experience. It has to do with the subconscious and unconscious mind. This can also be present in manomaya kosha, but it is more subtle. Vijnanamaya kosha is the connection between the mind of each person and the mind of all people, kind of like collective consciousness. From this stage, the mind becomes aware of what it already knows. When this sheath is woken, a person starts to have intuitive experiences of life and see what is really going on beneath the surface. This will make you wise.
The fifth kosha is the state of bliss and happiness, called anandamaya kosha. This is the causal body, also called the spiritual body. It is where the most subtle prana lives and is the kosha the furthest from the physical body.
So if we look at the koshas and prana in the body we can see that all 5 are filled with prana, which feeds and supports them and keeps them in the right place. With the help of prana, you can also move from one kosha to another. The pranamaya kosha serves as the neutral space, allowing one to move from annamaya to manomaya, manomaya to vijnanamaya, vijnanamaya to anandamaya, and so on. To move from one state to another, one must use the power of prana shakti. So, when prana is activated, a person can move through the physical, mental, psychological, and spiritual worlds.
Now, by piercing through each kosha, we hope to reach higher levels of awareness. This is the goal of all yoga practises. The shatkarmas, for example, have a direct effect on the annamaya kosha and free the flow of prana, which lets the awareness reach the next level, the pranamaya kosha. Asanas have a similar effect on the pranamaya kosha because they clear out the blocks in the annamaya kosha.
As a person gets better at asanas, their effects become more subtle and the pranamaya kosha is affected more directly. Practising pranayama has an effect on pranamaya kosha and a secondary effect on manomaya kosha.
When the first three sheaths are clean, you can move on to the fourth sheath, which is the sheath of sense. How and when anandamaya kosha is broken, though, is still unknown. In the transcendental world, the effects of practises do not happen in the order that they are done. Still, the five sheaths are connected to each other, so what happens in one affects what happens in the others. When pranic force is turned on, it leads to the growth of healing skills. This energy can then be used to heal the wounds of life. When the manomaya kosha is clean, thoughts are clear and feelings and ego are expressed in a balanced way. There is a better understanding of different conditions and situations.
When annamaya and pranamaya are clean, they are no longer separated from manomaya. Body, mind, and spirit work together to break through vijnanamaya kosha. When the psychic sheath is accessed, it makes it easier to focus and brings the deeper mind to the surface. Deeply rooted samskaras are cleared away, and mental experiences and extrasensory perceptions become clear.
As vijnanamaya kosha is cleared, inspiration is sparked and clarity comes naturally and easily. At this stage, the mind is being emptied in a real way and is getting ready to experience anandamaya kosha.
The path we take to work through each kosha depends on which major kosha our awareness is in. The different levels of consciousness represented by the koshas relate to: 1) body, 2) life, 3) mind, 4) psyche and 5) Self.
If most of your mind is in the annamaya kosha, you will feel very connected to your body. If the mind is in the pranamaya kosha, like an athlete, you will associate with power and vitality. If the awareness is in the manomaya kosha, you will identify with the analytical mind.
When the awareness has grown to the level of vijnanamaya kosha, intuitive intelligence leads to clear thinking. Here, everything is seen through the lens of the mind and given a deeper meaning than it seems to have at first. In this dimension, you can start to feel how subtle and expressive a higher awareness is. In anandamaya kosha you are moving into the spiritual realm, where everything is spiritual.
Using meditation as a vehicle, we can start to move effectively through the koshas to activate the prana. After prana is brought to life, its flow, shape, colour, and quality can be felt on all levels. At the level of the annamaya kosha, prana shows up as nervous energy. You become aware of prana shakti in the other sheaths by doing pratyahara, or withdrawing your senses, and going beyond your body and the outside world. Manomaya kosha is like a house at night with the lights on. This is how prana is seen there. How bright and clear that light is based on how clean your mind is. Some people see manomaya kosha as a sheath of light with a shape and form, while others see it as a circle of light coming from a single point.
In the vijnanamaya kosha, prana shows up as inner sights, smells, and sounds when you are in a deeper state of concentration. The first mental experience, on the other hand, doesn't mean that the practises have worked or that they can be stopped. As the koshas start to work better together, a little push here could lead to a little experience there. So, we simply keep going until full merging is reached. In fact, once vijnanamaya kosha is unlocked, the meditations then take the most effort and focus because it is possible to get lost in the realms for a long time because they are so big and full of interesting things.
As the vijnanamaya kosha clears up more and more, maybe we begin to catch glimpses of the anandamaya kosha, which is when everything seems bright.