5 Koshas. 5 Bodies: Physical, Pranic, Mental, Astral, Bliss
According to yoga, human beings have 5 levels of energy. This energy coexists in a range from the most physical to the most subtle. They’re called Patta Kosha or Five Sheaths.
1) Annamaya kosha (Physical body).
2) Pranamaya kosha (Pranic body).
3) Manomaya kosha (Mental body).
4) Vijnanamaya kosha (Astral or Psychic or Intuition body).
5) Anandamaya kosha (Body of bliss).
Annamaya kosha or the physical sheath of the body, is called the food body because it depends on food, water, and air, which are gross forms of prana.
Pranamaya kosha is the pranic body, the vital sheath. Pranic body has an even more subtle nature. It supports and nourishes the physical body, pours energy into every cell of it, and the pranamaya kosha is about the same size and shape as the physical body. When we do pranayamas, we work with this sheath of the body.
Manomaya kosha is the mental sheath – it’s like connector between the inner world and the outer world. Performs many functions, shares sensations and experiences to the intuitive body, and influences causal and intuitive bodies.
Vijnanamaya kosha is the astral shell, the body of intuition. When this shell awakens, people begin to experience life on an intuitive level. This leads to wisdom.
Anandamaya kosha is the body of bliss. It is a transcendental body. This sheath experiences happiness by itself after doing good deeds. In this level, human sees himself as a tool of higher powers, there is almost no individuality.
5 Koshas it’s like different layers of realities in which we can see the world differently. They work all together as one, but not all of them are available consciously for humans. Imagine that there are different layers of consciousness, and through which you see life, it gives you different perspectives of seeing life different actions of what you should do and how.
The more we grow in evolution, the higher level of realization we can achieve. So it is important to grow, evolve, and learn to switch consciousness to our different layers, to our different bodies.
