The Siddhas have given me another topic to dwell on now. Bhogar came to mention that we have 5 Koshas or sheaths and that treatment at times is meant for the more subtle bodies rather than what we presume is for the physical. In saying thus he clarified that the treatment in Ayurveda that he advised a devotee to undergo as such would not be seen as effective and rid her physical pain and agony immediately but the herbal treatment shall work within to clear her problem and bring relief to her in the long run. She had stopped short of a day and ended the treatment for she saw no positive results. A famous master who has since gone into self-exile wrote about the many forms of treatment and their effects on these various bodies. He lists that Allopathy is ideal and treats the physical or Annamaya Kosha, Homeopathy for the Manomaya Kosha, and Ayurveda for the Vijnanamaya Kosha. He adds that Pranayama aids the Pranayama Kosha, and Meditation the Anandamaya Kosha.
The subject surrounding the various bodies can be quite confusing and difficult to understand and comprehend as it was to me for apart from the physical, the rest of the bodies are not seen nor are they tangible. How do you explain something that is not visible to the eyes and cannot be touched?
Sally Kempton has simplified it for commoners like you and me at https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/philosophy/getting-know/. For instance, in penning this blog and its posts I could reaffirm my earlier belief that right from the subject till the choice of words and sentence construction it all came from a mysterious source within that stood by me as I penned each post on this blog. The author and administrator of the blog Siththan Arul, Thiru Velayudham Karthikeyan Aiya shared with me that he always felt a divine presence beside him as he penned the post in the early hours of dawn each Thursday. The blog has since being continued by Thiru Krishnan who goes by the pen name Agnilingam.
Reading Sally's piece "If you become engrossed in a project like writing, painting, math, or even problem-solving, you’re accessing the Wisdom Body or Vijnanamaya Kosha or Awareness Body" enlightens us further, making sense now of what I encountered in this brief moments of inspiration in writing the blog. I would have my phone beside me and take notes as soon as it comes and work on the full text later. Once the post is written and posted I would get up and walk over to Agathiyar and hug him each time for a well-written post that enlightened me too. In giving me a subject he drives me to research it. Reading it for my understanding is one thing. But to make it simplified for the readers, it requires his touch and his hand in jointly penning the page.
Sally explains further with a couple of examples. "A composer I know often plays random sounds until his ordinary mind (Manomaya Kosha or Mental Body) steps back, making room for the wisdom body to “download” music that is genuinely creative and new." The famous music director AR Rahman is said to have acknowledged that "You just grasp a film and start working, and something unpredictable comes out from a third element." Sally adds, "Another friend tells me that when he’s stymied or stuck on a personal or professional problem, he’ll formulate a question about it, then sit for meditation. At some point, as his thinking mind gets quiet, wisdom will arise." I believe we have all gone through these moments too.
Now for the various other sheaths or Koshas. We know very well what the Annamaya Kosha or Physical Sheath or body is and can do. But after taking up Yoga we began to become more aware of it and found that our present knowledge of our own body that was with us all these years was indeed shallow. Acharya Gurudasan in his introduction to a piece he wrote on Kriya Hatha Yoga for Siddha Heartbeat in the past, mentions, "Kriya Yoga is a 5 phased integral approach to attain God-realization. Each of them addresses one or more of the Koshas. Koshas are the 5 sheaths or bodies of our existence." Yoga dwells into these secrets of the body. In those brief moments where we enter and maintain a pose, we become aware and interact and communicate with these bodies provided it is not done as a regime to be completed within a said period or centered on gaining benefits. If prior to Acharya Gurudasan leading us and showing us Kriya Hatha Yoga we had hurriedly worked through the phases of Yoga picked up from the books and later from Tavayogi, Acharya showed us to wind down as in Sally's words become "grounded and consciously inhabiting the physical body." We become aware of our internals too. When we slow down and move into these asanas or positions, all the thoughts and energy is diverted from the mental body to the physical. The body begins to heal from within. Pranayama techniques come to aid the healing by bringing in large doses of prana or energy from the cosmos within. Pranayama techniques bring vitality and energize further the Pranamaya Kosha or Vital Energy Sheath. With practice, we feel the prana inhaled or the resultant energy expand within to the extent that we fear the body shall blow up. But the feeling is good, and we are invigorated and ready to go. The feel-good factor that comes about for no reason, without the need for a spur or an external catalyst or an indulgence as in our favorite food or in watching a favorite movie or being with a favorite person, and as Sally describes "And on good days, there was some part deep within me that was happy, really happy, about nothing at all", this then is the Sheath of Bliss or Anandamaya Kosha. Ruzbeh N. Bharucha writes that "Our aim in yoga is to reach a connection with the Anandamaya Kosha - when we reach that inner place where everything is silent and calm, we have found our connection with Anandamaya."
As Sally writes, "Once you become sensitive to the energy within and around you, you will start to recognize the vibrational signature that you and others leave in a room, or even on a piece of clothing", this is where we connect with the other subtle and divine energies too, as Agathiyar finally tells us that he stands as "a vibrational signature" too that is ever-existent in all of creation. Here we can relate to the efficacy of Mantras recited and etchings on Yantras, sand, soil, or anything else for that matter that leaves a signature in the vibrational realm, changing, modifying, strengthening, or weakening the ripples that are generated and flow. Healing the energy body either through a medium or through meditation opens up the closed chakras or energy centers moving the stagnated energies, clearing the blockages, and supercharging this Vital Energy Sheath to top form.
The Manomaya Kosha or Mental Body that is filled with so many thoughts can be subdued either by replacing a thousand thoughts with one single thought as Buddha taught or by observing the breath without active participation as Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal taught.
My cardiologist friend who receives messages from Krishnaveni Amma of Kalyana Theertam shared the following from her where we see another perspective, that of worship and devotion and the transition from Bakthi to Gnana with the use of these bodies.
That worship of the Supreme, done by this embodiment (the gross body), is Bhakthi Yoga. When sufficient, diligent progress is made on the Path, with the Grace and Blessings of the Masters, that worship turns inwards, towards the Source, the Self, it is the beginning of Gnana Yoga. As one goes further inward, the process of internalisation gets more intense. The embodiment ceases to be relevant to sadhana.
Such a time period is measured by Prana. The external breath is not material or relevant to sadhana, though it is required in the beginning. When Prana takes control, the mind starts to die. Pulsations of the Prana is the only determinant that can be gauged but not controlled. If your sadhana is good, then, you feel the beat of Prana. The best way to know your progress is to be aware that as you enter deeper into meditation, the body reduces, and ceases to breathe. Watch this.
The Annamaya Kosam exists merely as a shadow. The sadhana is continued by the Sukuma Sareera... a combination of Manomaya Kosam and Pranamaya Kosam (Astral Body). This retains the wisdom and karma of sadhana, transversing the many births the soul takes, until, one fine day, in the suitable birth, Gnana is given to the soul, by the Masters and Lord Shiva. Oneness becomes a reality. Though the soul retains its identity and performs gross deeds, with the instrument of the body, in addition to the subtle deeds performed, it is no more under the sway of Maya. (ஆணவமும் கன்மமும் உண்டு; மாயை இல்லை). The science and tantra of creation, sustenance, and dissolution becomes clear, as is the role played so far, and henceforth."
Swami Saravanananda in this book, an English translation of Ramalinga Adigal’s "Aruperunjhoti Agaval" published by Ramalinga Mission, Madras, writes of illumination that brings on transitions in one.
At whatever age the aspirant gains illumination or the effulgence enters in him or emanates from within, some remarkable changes take place in the body-frame. The Divine Light seems to change the very cell of the body, with the result, that they seem to function in the opposite direction. With the advent of psychic head, more and more changes take place in the already purified body. The cells and thence the whole body begins to transcend the limits imposed on them by impure Maya (the grosser principle of nature) and try to break one more of its veils. The cells undergo alternate condensation and expansion for an unspecified period and the body slowly emerges out of its bondage and begins to grow. This expanding and ever prospering body, is called the subtle body or the body of Omkar or Pranava Deham or body. Consequently, the old body becomes middle-aged, then to the youth of eighteen years, to twelve years (pure body), to eight years, and finally five years (Pranava Deham). After five years the body grows to the size of the universe to become casual body or a body of gnosis (Gnana Deham) which is the natural abode of the soul.
From an article on the net, we are told of the various Koshas or sheaths that cover our body, running parallel to the various Dehams or bodies described above. The author speaks of:
The inward journey beginning the very moment he becomes aware of the divine presence working through him. He then surrenders to the will of God, hence surrendering the sheath of his intellect or Vijnanamaya Kosha. When the transformation from the influence of the mind-stuff begins moving towards the full surrender to the divine, the individual has begun to be liberated, becoming literally a beacon of bliss-light. As the divine attributes of the Atman or self that manifest in the very subtle Sheath of Bliss (Anandamaya Kosha) that surrounds the soul (Atman) come to be known, transforming the very subtle part of the being, he verily becomes a guide, a guru and a saint. When the transformation of that very subtle part of the being has been given fully to the divine, the individual becomes literally a beacon of bliss-light. Simply being in the presence of such a being is uplifting. Such an elevated individual is often acknowledged as a saint. Once aware of the divine presence, "he has already begun the transformational process and surrendered the sheath of the intellect (Vijnanamaya Kosha) where the analytical or intellectual component of the being is fully informed by the divine light attributes, accumulating experiences and knowledge enlightened by the higher deeper aspects of self. Such Sage has digested and integrated the informed divine light into the analytical aspects of the being. He moves from an ordinary man to become a saint. All his experiences and knowledge are then tailored to teach him the higher and deeper aspects of the self or Atman. The teachings that were focussed on gaining experience in life and knowledge for living in the physical world, shift to that of knowing the soul and one's true purpose and mission. He becomes well informed and knowledgeable not through the normal means of attaining them but is informed by the divine attributes within him. The divine attributes of the Atman or self manifest in the very subtle Sheath of Bliss or Anandamaya Kosha that surrounds the soul or Atman.
The article continues,
As the intellect undergoes this transformation, the mental sheath (Manomaya Kosha), associated with the senses, is similarly transformed. Of course, this individual is fully aware of the divine as the prime mover. Since the ego has been given to the divine, every action related to the senses is observed and understood to be none other than the indwelling God or goddess doing the experiencing and enjoying. Such a Buddha can enjoy all the senses without fear of confusion or being lost spiritually in them. For the great tantric who have attained to this state, conventional rules which guide and provide stability, safety, and structure are irrelevant.
As the divine light descends into the sheath of energy (Pranayama Kosha) the entity becomes a Siddha in the truest sense of the word. As defined in the Upanishads, a Siddha is one who has progressed from the exalted ‘state of freed while living’ (Jivanmukta) to ‘supremely free with full power over death’ (Paramukta). This state is referred to in Siddhantha literature as Soruba Mukti or Soruba Samadhi. This Paramukta will rarely retain the transformed physical frame and when so, remains as an avatar.