If initially, we thought homes and cars were inundated by the rising waters of the flood over the past weekend, as the floodwaters began to recede, reports of flood victims who have died in the floods arise while others including household pets are reported missing. Besides shop lots, and office spaces being flooded, public properties have been devastated. Walking through these video reports with my granddaughter, I began to explain to her about the magic of creation and the need to be grateful.
Asking her to hold out both her hands, I held the hand of her younger sister. I told her the left hand was that of her mum and the right her dad. Then I pointed out each finger as one of the five elements earth, water, fire, air, and space. Taking one element each from both the parents, the pindam or embryo is made in her mother's womb. This grows into a fetus and a child who is today her little brother. Life is given to an otherwise motionless matter through the breath. This breath determines our life span, hence the Siddhas and Yogi's paying special attention to it. We continued to carry out some simple basic pranayama and yoga asanas.
Just as when the floodwaters receded and exposed the extent of damage, as we gain newer experiences and learnings, there is a need to revisit our earlier readings and posts from an updated understanding and perspective. We shall surprise ourselves how life which is in a constant change demands a constant need of re-evaluation of understanding as we take another step ahead. It is as if the moment we think we have understood something another portal opens up as we dwell deeper into the subject or another step appears before us in the murky waters as we wade through it further in. It looks like there are no concrete answers to life's mysteries. Life simply mystifies us as we take every step.
I wrote earlier,
Annamaya kosam is the material outermost vessel that is the physical body composed of physical matter, the outermost layer that is visible, that we can touch and feel. Problems with the body are dealt with by seeking medication and surgery. The medicine that the doctor administers, works its way into the patient. While treatment and medicine are administered, the body could either accept or reject them. As for surgery, and as the saying goes, "the doctor stitches, God heals", after the surgeon performs surgery on a patient, the healing takes place on its own accord from within oneself. The body with all this assistance miraculously works to rejuvenate itself back to its old self. What a wonderful and miraculous tool the body is. If all his attempts fail in reviving the patient, the doctor calls us to pray for a miracle to save the patient. We then seek the help of the Divine.
When Tavayogi taught some friends and me both Yogasanam and Pranayama and when I diligently did it, I could experience the prana travel within, expanding tremendously, on the verge of exploding. This is the Pranamaya Kosam that exists within us as a second layer after the physical body.
Manomaya Kosam, the third layer travels afar without the need for us to move physically. I can be at my home and yet travel to Paris through my thoughts and visualize myself taking a Gondola ride, gracefully gliding through those dreamy waterways, and returning home in seconds. I can be engaged in a conversation with someone else and at the same time access the person, think of a reply, relate the conversation to something else, etc all at the same time as we hold the conversation.
Vijnanamaya kosam, the next layer is where one encounters wonders upon wonders, and divine experiences, including miracles. When Tavayogi took me into the jungles, hills, and caves, he would keep pointing out to me the presence of the Siddhas through the cool breeze that blew as in the wonderful scent and aroma that was in the air and the light showers that came down on us. He would point up to the sky and tell me the Siddhas were showering flowers on us. Initially, I never felt, never could take in the aroma, and never could see these wonders. Later while sitting at Agathiyar's sannadhi at Agasthiyampalli, crying my heart out begging Agathiyar to open his eyes in his granite statue as he has promised in the Nadi, a breeze blew cooling my back on that hot summer day. Still, I could not equate this with their presence then. When I came out of his tiny temple, disappointed that Agathiyar did not show me the said miracle, I found Tavayogi already standing outside in the hot sun. He motioned me towards him asking me to stand at the exact spot he stood. He told me to watch Agathiyar open and close his eyes in his granite statue. I peered into the darkness of the inner sanctum. I could not make him out much less see his eyes open and shut. Both of us returned indoors disappointed. Then as I got to sit down in my earlier spot, Tavayogi asked me to go sit in the inner sanctum. Fearing that it would be wrong and inappropriate of me to enter the sacred chamber, I chose to sit on the trestle between the inner and outer chambers. That is when I saw his left eye in his granite statue open. The moment I turned to Tavayogi he hushed me away from the place saying that they would only show for a moment. As I turned to see Agathiyar while making my way out, he gave me a wide grin and kept looking at me with the left eye open. Traveling to our next stop at Papanasam, Agathiyar again surprised me with another miracle here at his sannadhi, although he did not mention that this would take place, as he did for Agasthiyampalli. He opened both his eyes blinking at me. This time around it was not something sculptured in granite but two real human eyes. Today I understand that seeing these and other miracles are taking a trip within into the Vijnanamaya kosam.
Anandamaya kosam is the innermost layer where one touches the divine, encountering bliss. The energy in this realm moves us. By tapping this energy we could use it to solve and heal ourselves efficiently. Gnana arises here. Karma resides here. While we go to the Nadi reader to know our past, Tavayogi knew his past while sitting in meditation reaching out into this zone. Dwelling into this layer will reveal reasons for one's unidentified illnesses, diseases, and discomforts too.
If I concluded earlier that "It's interesting to note that all the names for these layers end in Maya. When I was in pain close to 2 1/2 years in 2011 due to symptoms akin to sciatica, Agathiyar brushed it off as Maya. This time suffering for the same reason, Lord Muruga says he came to play his Leela. How do we explain all these? We have to go a long way in understanding the play of the Divine", I ask myself if nature is used as a tool to remind us of the impermanency of life and all our belongings? Is nature reminding us that all is Maya?
I have to revisit the earlier understanding of the kosas and rewrite it as carried in a previous post.
The Siddhas brought us to the realization that we are not the Annamaya Kosa. You need the energy to move a thing. The prana and Pranamaya Kosa is the energy body that moves the physical. So what is this "I"? Is it the physical body or the Pranayama Kosa? Or are we a culmination of both? We cannot possibly be the body or the energy alone for we have a mind that thinks and drives the energy to move the body. So are we then the Manomaya Kosa? But wait a minute! We realize that there is someone driving our thoughts, driving us to think, analyze, judge, and opine. So are we the Vignanamaya Kosa then? Does this gnanam drive our thoughts? Then why is not everyone a gnani?
This body is lifeless without the energy derived from prana in food, water, and sunlight. This body is lifeless without the energy of the Pranayama Kosa. This body is lifeless without the Manomaya Kosa too. We turn into idiots without the Vignanamaya Kosa. All the experience gained through this composite body of 4 Kosas leads us to joy when it connects with the pleasures derived from the sense organs and bliss when it connects with the divine experiences. We become drenched in bliss. That sheath of bliss is Anandamaya Kosa.
We are told that we are by nature a buddha or divine. We are the Atma, pure in nature. The Atma is only seen to be separate from the Paramatma when it leaves the home to stay with the Annamaya Kosa and Pranamaya Kosa momentarily just as a teen is eager to move out of his parents home to gain his own experiences and supposedly be free. As Tavayogi says we need the body to know the breath, and we check the breath to ascertain if there is life in the body, both Annamaya and Pranayama Kosas are essential to exist and for survival. This is the state of plants and animals. Man has an added faculty that of the Manomaya Kosa to think. He is then gifted with the Arivu or intelligence that is the Vignanamaya Kosa so that he makes wise decisions. The wisdom in him leads him to know his Atma that is forever in a state of bliss in the Anandamaya Kosa.
Now, this I believe portrays a truer picture and the reality behind these Kosas.