The five sheaths of the self

The five koshas are the sheaths that, in Vedantic teaching, wrap the self: the annamaya kosha of food (the physical body), the pranamaya of breath (the vital body), the manomaya of mind, the vijnanamaya of discernment or intellect, and the anandamaya of bliss. They are set out in the Taittiriya Upanishad, which describes each as enclosing the next like nested vessels, with the true self within all five.

The scheme is a map of the person from the outermost material layer to the innermost, and a tool of contemplative analysis: to recognise that one is not merely the body, nor even the mind, but the awareness the sheaths enclose.