Kosha

Yoga, like all the world’s authentic esoteric traditions, views the human being as made up of a hierarchical system of more or less subtle successive sheaths or vehicles (kosha-s), each vibrating with a certain dominant frequency. It is the specific frequency of vibration of each sheath (kosha) that gives it a greater or lesser degree of subtlety.

At the lowest level of vibrational frequency is the annamaya kosha sheath (kosha = ‘sheath’, maya = ‘illusion’, anna = ‘nourishment’, ‘food’), the illusory ‘sheath’ maintained by the food ingested and assimilated by man, while at the highest level of vibration is the universal sheath of transcendent reality or anandamaya kosha, which is the last veil that shrouds the Immortal Godly Self (Atman).

Between these two extremes: 1) the physical sheath (annamaya kosha) and 2) the sheath of bliss (anandamaya kosha) there is a range of intermediate ‘vehicles’ (invisible to ordinary physical sight and more or less subtle), sheaths of the human being, perceptible only through clairvoyance: the subtle vital-emotional sheath (pranamaya kosha), the subtle mental sheath (manomaya kosha) and the subtle supramental sheath (vijnanamaya kosha). With the exception of genuine initiates and advanced yogis, these are not normally accessible and cannot normally be realized in the common or ordinary state of consciousness. Nevertheless, especially to the intelligent and intuitive, their existence (which is real in the Subtle Worlds where they are permanently found) can sometimes be deduced from their various activities.