#5 Experience of Pancha Koshas (Five Bodies)+ Pancha Kosha Poster
Namaste.
When I first started on the path of yoga, my guru would make me meditate on awareness of the physical body for hours at a stretch. I would wake up at 4:00 in the morning, get ready for yoga and meditation practice, and start testing my limits of Sadhana. I would focus on my breath for about an hour, witness it, and eventually move on to experiencing the sensations of the body. This practice is also known as Vipassana in many parts of India. However, my Guru would tell me that this is only the first step. Although the most important, it is one of the only ways to move on to the higher energy planes of the human body. Little did I know that he was referring to Pancha Kosha, or the five layers of human consciousness surrounding and protecting the core.
According to yoga, the physical body is only one of the many dimensions of existence. There are five layers of existence, including your physical body. The five layers, some physical; others subtle, help the human body survive. They are known as Pancha Kosha. The first layer is known as Annamaya Kosha. This is your gross body. It is built out of the physical aspects of food, air, water, sunlight and such. This body is highly dependent on these physical necessities and is bound to grow or shrink as per intake. However, we can also say that this body is dependent on Prana, which we discussed in the last email. Give this body everything, including food, water, and air, but deprive it of prana and it would not survive.
The second layer is Pranamaya Kosha, or the energy body. When pranayama is practiced, when your focus is diverted into your physical body, you can access this subtle body. This body takes support of koshas which are even subtler than these. However, with the practice of pranayama, this layer can be experienced and energised. Simply by practicing deep breathing, you can experience the Pranamaya Kosha expand into your Annamaya Kosha (Gross body). Pranamaya kosha is very much similar to the physical body. However, it can grow and shrink as per your level of energy. With practicing of pranayama, mantra japa, and other techniques which we’ll be discussing in depth, you can energise and activate this body.
Psychics can see the pranamaya kosha as an aura around the physical body, which grows out of the physical body. Some researchers, who have been working with instruments like Kirlian, have been able to photograph pranamaya kosha on film. But you don’t need social proof to discover your own pranamaya kosha. You simply have to experience it to confirm its existence. But being subtler in context to the physical body, and most of our conscious awareness focused on the physicality of life, it takes time to experience. This body also takes more time to disintegrate compared to the physical body. When the physical body begins to disintegrate, the subtle pranamaya kosha is still present for some time before it leaves.
After Annamaya Kosha and Pranamaya Kosha come into your awareness, a new layer of consciousness comes into picture, known as Manomaya Kosha. It is the mental dimension, a kosha, that keeps the pranamaya and annamaya koshas integrated. This kosha interacts with the world outside, and brings in the experiences of the pranamaya and annamaya koshas. The Manomaya Kosha contains all the necessary programming required to keep the body as it is. It takes the knowledge passed on from many births and keeps it together to help the consciousness decide how to look, how to feel, what to think, what not to think, how your physical existence is. Everything that you see, feel, think, and react comes from a previous experience preserved in this kosha.
Once the Manomaya kosha is brought into experience it becomes easier for you to understand how everything works. Whether you want to become excellent in your work or simply improve your health, you gain the power to directly influence the Pranamaya koshas and Annamayya koshas. With access to Manomaya Kosha, you have access to every bit of knowledge accessible to the human mind and beyond. You can explore consciousness beyond your perceived senses, and summon inspiration at will regarding any aspect of your life.
If you manage to take your awareness beyond Manomaya Kosha, you will find the fourth layer of consciousness that yogis call Vijyanmaya Kosha, or the psychic layer. Real spirituality starts once a person accesses this kosha. Once you go beyond the physical body, the energy body, and the memory body, you find that everything around you, including you, is the intention of the divine. It bridges your outer world with the inner world. Psychic information, including experiences of outside and inside realms, is channeled to the Manomaya Kosha, which transfers information to the Pranamaya Kosha which gets experienced by the Annamaya Kosha. When this kosha becomes accessible, the yogi experiences life at a very different level compared to gross levels. Intuition becomes a part of life. Underlying truths and realities are perceived. A yogi becomes wise in words, deeds, and character.
After penetrating the Vijyanmaya Kosha, one can access the fifth kosha known as Anandmaya Kosha. This is where a yogi goes beyond knowledge, and experiences parabrahman, or the ultimate bliss. A yogi becomes and spreads bliss naturally.
Experience of Pancha Koshas
The Pancha Koshas or the five bodies are different. They are not similar in nature. Every kosha has a different form, color, and inherent experience. Moreover, when koshas are penetrated and experienced, different people will have different experiences. The practitioner of yoga would require cultivation of his/her awareness to consciously recognise the experience. All the yogic practices we will be doing in the following emails will try to help you elevate your experiences of koshas.
You might experience a sudden change in your perception, or start seeing a halo around people. You might even start to think differently. The people you were irritated with would sound loving to you. The situations you were scared of will become easy to handle. But these experiences don't mean you can stop. Sometimes, a yogi temporarily achieves these states and then loses it. Mastering and staying in a particular consciousness will take years of consistent practice. But that shouldn’t discourage you from moving forward a little, every day.
A yogi’s primary job is to make sure prana flows freely through all the five bodies. Pranayama and many other hatha yoga practices (we’ll be learning about this in upcoming emails) help the practitioner directly channel the prana into different koshas. Yoga asanas help the practitioner remove blockages from the annamaya kosha, and thereby allow a free flow of prana into it. As we go deeper in the science of yoga and meditation, you will notice that everything that you do is about purification of your koshas so that devine experiences can flow freely through you. You don’t have to do anything special to access divine experiences except let it flow through you by removing blockages in the five koshas.
As you advance in the practice of pranayama, your experiences will become subtler. One by one you can access each of the first four bodies and take control of your experience. However, accessing the fifth body isn’t methodical. It is a revelation to the yogi. They are separate and yet connected with each other. When one of them is influenced, others are affected.
However, the core of it all remains that you, as a yogic practitioner, will need to influence and channel your first two bodies in the beginning. Activating the pranamaya kosha brings about incredible healing abilities in the aspirant. And these healing abilities are not limited to the wounds of the physical body. You can use the pranic energy to access other koshas and heal the blockages there as well. When manomaya kosha is accessed, a sense of clarity of thoughts and balance comes into experience.
Your emotions will become steady and a joyful nature will emerge. All the unnecessary distractions will lose sight. Every situation, yours and those of others, will be comprehensible. You will be able to not only help, but also offer solutions to situations beyond normal intellect. Creativity will become easily accessible. With practice, your koshas will work together in union without resistance (due to differences in their energy and synchronicity) and help you achieve incremental progress in life.
Once the pancha koshas are accessed, you will have psychic experiences, often beyond your normal perception. Creativity and clarity will become a part of life. It will be natural and effortless to be inspired to do new things. If something like this happens to you, be sure that you are becoming ready to experience the fifth and final kosha.
In the next email, we shall talk about how to become aware of the pancha koshas and access their consciousness. If you are a premium subscriber, I will also be sending you a detailed explanation of Vayu Mudra + Next Level of Prana Chaitanya Meditation.
Download your copy of free Pancha Kosha Poster here.
Hope you are learning something from our weekly emails. For what it’s worth, forward this email to your family and friends who might be interested in learning about the yogic science of Pranava Sadhana.
Om Namah Shivay.
Jaky Astik