Lifting the veils: An introduction to the Koshas

Stress and trauma is overwhelming because it permeates every layer of our being. Having a deeper understanding of what those layers are can help us start the healing process toward post traumatic growth. Today our work IN is an introduction to  a series of episodes on the koshas that can guide us along that path to resilience.

In yoga we talk a lot about the chakras, the breath, the yamas and niyamas, and of course asana (poses), we might read the yoga sutras or the bhagavad gita and all of those things,  all of those practices, feel good, they’re soothing to the soul and they calm the nervous system. But why do they work so well? The koshas are the glue that holds us together and understanding them can unlock true healing and post traumatic growth.

So what are the koshas?

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Transcript

Ep 193

Lifting the veils: An introduction to the koshas

Using the Koshas for health and healing.

Stress and trauma is overwhelming because it permeates every layer of our being. Having a deeper understanding of what those layers are can help us start the healing process toward post traumatic growth. Today our work IN is an introduction to  a series of episodes on the koshas that can guide us along that path to resilience.

In yoga we talk a lot about the chakras, the breath, the yamas and niyamas, and of course asana (poses), we might read the yoga sutras or the bhagavad gita and all of those things,  all of those practices, feel good, they’re soothing to the soul and they calm the nervous system. But why do they work so well? The koshas are the glue that holds us together and understanding them can unlock true healing and post traumatic growth.

So what are the koshas?

The Kosha’s are a part of what we call the subtle body and the yogic concept of layers of self. There are 5 of them that we’ll go into specifically. Loosely translated kosha means sheath. In the Taittiriya Upanishad describes the koshas as a model of the human being as Self encased in 5 wrappings. They start at the body, our physical layer, and move progressively inward to our true self or our Bliss body or joy which ultimately is our constant true nature. With that translation it sometimes seems like the koshas are solid separate layers but they are very much intermingled. So I think a more accurate way to think of it is “veil”. Just like a veil, each kosha can affect our perception of the others, of ourselves and of how we see the world. 

In this series we’re going to take a deeper look at each kosha on its own and then look at how they can influence each other and how we can use our new awareness of the subtle body to build resilience.

The 5 koshas are 

Annamaya kosha - Physical or food body

Pranamaya kosha - the vital energetic/emotional body

Manomaya kosha - mental body

Vijnanamaya kosha - intellectual/wisdom observer body

Anandamaya kosha - The true Self - joy body

The suffix -maya means illusion. That doesn’t mean that these veils are not real. The meaning is closer to illusory, changeable, just like all things these layers are ever changing, becoming and unbecoming all the time. For example if you lay a white veil of fabric over a red veil you might see pink, lay the red over the white and you might see a shade of rose. 

The first kosha is Annamaya kosha. Anna means food. We are essentially made up of food. Our physical body. This is the easiest to understand because most of us identify ourselves by our physical body. We can see it, feel it, take care of it, hurt it, heal it. In western culture our body is who we think we are. In yoga philosophy, the koshas tell us that the body is something to take care of, that we can be with, but it is not who we are. 

Just beneath our physical layer is pranamaya kosha. Prana means life force, vitality or energy. You may know it from pranayama or breath. Pranamaya is our energetic self. We know it by our breath. Without breath there is no life. But here also in some lineages we include not only the breath but also the emotional self. Emotions are energy in motion. Some lineages put emotion in the next kosha but I believe it makes more sense here. One thing to note as we go through our discussion of each of these koshas is that they do not exist separately from one another. There is a lot of overlap.

Stepping deeper in is Manomaya kosha. Mano = mind. This is our mental self. Our thoughts and histories and memories. Literally who we “think” we are. Our thoughts determine a lot of our identity and our personality. In yoga we call this “mind waves” or citta vritti. This is where the monkey mind can live quite happily if we don’t examine closely. 

Contained within this layer is Vijnanamaya kosha. Our wisdom layer. Sometimes people call it the intellect layer. But this is where our witness lives. This is where our objective observer self resides. IT’s our analytical critical self. The one that decides right from wrong. I also think of it like a filter. A place where thoughts & emotions can be refined (or not) before being expressed.

These are the first four koshas. They are changeable. They grow with us. They’re influenced by us and our experiences and by our environment and they can change not only our perception of the world but how the world sees us.

The fifth and innermost kosha, Anandamaya kosha. Ananda = Joy . This is supposed to be our natural state of being. But we have these veils that stand between our joyful self and the world. I was taught that this kosha is constant. We may lose our connection to it because we over identify or under identify  with one or more of the other veils of self. Maybe we take on other beliefs about our body, or our emotions have become dysregulated or we are stuck in negative thought patterns, whatever it is it colors and covers up who we truly are. 

 Stress and trauma is part of the human condition that tends to separate us from our true self. It changes our perception of everything. Understanding more about these subtle body layers of our self and cultivating a deeper understanding of that self can build real world resilience, balance the nervous system and improve our overall health, body, mind and spirit.

So next time we’ll dive into Annamaya kosha, the physical layer and discover how we can use that awareness and apply it to the real world for health beyond what the eyes can see.

Thanks for listening!

 If you're looking for ways to handle the effects of stress, physically, mentally and emotionally through the body head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin you’ll find all the show notes for this and other episodes plus lots of free resources. And if you’re in a place where you are ready for more and you live in the Dayton Ohio area I’m taking private clients for trauma informed yoga and trauma release exercise in person and online. So book a discovery call and we can have a real life conversation. And of course I’d be ever so grateful if you would take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re listening. 

Thanks again everyone and as always stop working out and start working IN.   

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