The five koshas are the sheaths that, in Vedantic teaching, wrap the self: the sheaths of food, breath, mind, discernment and bliss, named in Sanskrit annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya. The scheme is set out in the Taittiriya Upanishad, which describes each as enclosing the next like nested vessels, from the physical body outward to the subtlest layer of felt wellbeing. They are read as a map of progressively subtler layers of a person rather than as separate bodies, and Advaita Vedanta uses the model as a teaching device, guiding a practitioner to look past each sheath in turn toward the unchanging self the tradition holds none of the five actually is.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 5
- What Defines This Grouping
- Five "sheaths" enclosing the self in Vedantic analysis - of food, breath, mind, discernment and bliss - used as a method of discrimination rather than as five separate bodies. 1
- Size of the Traditional Set
- 5 koshas 1
Attestation
- Era of Attestation
- Set out in the Taittiriya Upanisad, one of the older prose Upanisads. 2
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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.
Analysis Toward the Self
In Vedantic practice the koshas are used to work inward, distinguishing the self from each sheath in turn, I have a body but am not only the body, I have thoughts but am not only the mind, in a method of discrimination aimed at realising the atman. The five-sheath model is widely taught in modern yoga and Vedanta.
The atlas describes each kosha, what it comprises, and its place in the Vedantic analysis of the self. The koshas belong to the same Indian map of the person as the gunas and chakras under The Body & Its Centres.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.