CONCEPT OF PANCHA KOSHA

According to Yoga, we have five bodies. This is scientific and can be easily explained:The first layer is the Annamaya Kosha, or the obvious gross physical body. This layer, or sheath is also known as the food sheath and consists of the precise intake of food substances consumed during one’s lifetime.The second layer is known as the Pranamaya Kosha, or the life-force; the vital breath in the physical body. Here we are moving from the gross physical body to the subtle breath body. One cannot see the breath, one can only see the movement of the breath and without it we would be dead in an instant. This is not merely oxygen, for simply putting oxygen into a corpse will not bring it back to life. It is the life force inherent within the oxygen that constitutes prana. In other words, oxygen is merely the vehicle for the life force within it. Prana is extremely subtle and cannot be detected by any scientific instruments .The third layer is the Manomaya Kosha, known as the mental and emotional body. This increasingly subtle layer is the sheath of perception, It relates to the, mental being, memory and identification with what one perceives, the ego or sense of being aspect of the individual. This sheath gives rise to likes and dislikes, love and hate, etc.
The fourth layer is the Vijnanamaya Kosha and is known as the intellectual sheath or seat of intuition. This is where our discriminative faculty or conscience lies our sense of right and wrong. This is the main point where men differ from animals.

The fifth layer is known as the Anandamaya Kosha, or Layer of Bliss. This is the layer where man loses his sense of ego or being and merges into Universal Consciousness. This is the state of perfection; perfect harmony, perfect health and total bliss. There is no misery or even sense of being here as one becomes Harmony, Bliss, Peace, Love and Divinity itself. This is the Supreme State and the goal of Yoga

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