The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads

by Swami Krishnananda

So these are the five koshas, as I mentioned. The annamaya kosha is the physical body. But it is not that the physical body comes first in the process of creation; the causal body comes first. The causal hardens itself into the subtle, and the subtle becomes the gross. These three bodies are the objects of experience in the sleep, dream and waking conditions, respectively. It is the causal body that we experience in sleep, the subtle body in dream, and the physical body in waking. These three bodies are subdivided into the five koshas, or the sheaths. The innermost one is called the anandamaya kosha. The next one is called the vijnanamaya kosha. Further to it is the manomaya kosha. Then we have the pranamaya kosha, and lastly we have the grossest one, the annamaya kosha.

The annamaya kosha means the physical sheath constituted of the food that we intake. Anna is food; and as I mentioned earlier, the various impressions created by our sensory experiences contribute to the stability of the body, including the physical food that we take. And here we have a marked distinction of the limbs of the body—head, ear, nose, etc. We can feel that the various limbs of our body are completely cut off from the limbs of the bodies of others. In spite of the Upanishad crying out that all this manifestation has come from the One, we are least conscious of this fact, and we cannot even dream at any time in our life that we have any connection with the wall standing out there. Such is the condition of physical experience, where limbs are cut off completely into a little prison house of this body in which the Atman abides, as if it is its own property. Now these activities of the physical body are driven or motivated by inner impulses coming from higher realms, and these subtler realms which are more pervasive in their nature are the other koshas mentioned, which are inside the physical body.

We are not the physical body only, as many people may mistake themselves to be. Inside the physical body there is an energy body; it is called the pranamaya sarira. The subtle electric force that energises the whole physical system, as copper wires are energised by or charged with electric force driven by the power house, is the prana. The prana is an invisible sakti; it is a power. We cannot define it, just as we cannot define electricity. It is what we call the life principle, the breathing process; and the sense of ‘life’ that we feel in us is due to the presence of the activity of the prana. It is difficult to translate this word into English. It is vital force, vital energy, life principle, or whatever we may call it. Just as in a live wire electric energy charges every particle or atom of the wire and we cannot know which is the wire and which is electricity (but if we touch the wire we will get a shock), likewise we cannot know which is the body and which is the prana. They have become one, so that if we touch any part of the body, it looks as if we are being touched. Our life has become one with the vehicle which is the body; the vehicle has become one with the driver. They are identical; we cannot separate one from the other.

Now, this prana is the external-most manifestation of a still subtler energy which we call mind. The mind is transparent enough to reflect the consciousness of the Atman, whereas the prana is not so transparent. It is opaque, comparatively; it is rajas-ridden, and it is very active. Wherever there is an excess of activity, or rajas, there cannot be a reflection of the Atman and, therefore, prana does not reflect consciousness. It requires the help or aid of the mind that is more transparent in its nature. Though the mind, too, has rajas and tamas in it in a certain percentage, it has a greater predominance of sattva in it. So the thinking faculty, or the psychic faculty, becomes the interior controlling agent of the other external sheaths, the pranamaya sarira and the annamaya sarira.

The sense organs are contained in this body. We are generally told that the karmendriyas, or the organs of action—speaking, grasping, locomotion, etc., which are the tendencies to action and the limbs that help such activity—are all motivated and controlled by the prana. The prana is the synthesised form of rajasic force, and the karmendriyas, or the organs of action, are the discrete or the diversified forms of the same energy. So we may say that all our activities are nothing but prana working. But these activities have ideas behind them, thoughts behind them. Thoughts precede action.

The mind together with the senses of knowledge constitute the manomaya kosha, or the mental sheath. Here we are in an animal level, practically. On the pranic level, we are like vegetables; and on the purely physical level, we are like inanimate matter. But on the thinking level, we are like animals, and only on the intellectual level are we superior to animals. That is a still higher stage. The vijnana, or the intellect, is something like a purified form of the mind. It is purified in the sense that it is capable of determinate thinking, while the mind is usually engaged in indeterminate thinking. There is a translucent feeling of the presence of things and an indistinct thought of objects outside when the mind operates. It cannot decide, it cannot judge, it cannot discriminate, it cannot argue, and it cannot come to a conclusion. This is the mind, as we see it operating in animals, for instance. This is what we call the instinct level, when we are not self-conscious to the extent necessary for judging things in terms of pros and cons, etc.

The senses of knowledge—seeing, hearing, etc.—are the manifestations of the mind, just as the organs of action are the manifestations of the prana. While the organs of action are in the pranamaya kosha, or the energy body, the senses of knowledge are in the manomaya kosha, or the mental sheath. They are internal because they are conscious in some way, whereas the prana is not conscious; it is simply active. The manomaya kosha, or the mental sheath, acts in collaboration with the vijnanamaya kosha, or the intellectual sheath, which also works with the aid of the senses of knowledge, so that we may say the intellect, the mind and the senses of knowledge form a single family. They are a single group, and they work together. This is the highest point of individuality conceivable. We are now on the intellectual level, having risen above the mental level, the prana level of the vegetable kingdom, and the inorganic level. So we are able to think in a logical fashion, understand the causes of effects, and effects of causes, etc., and link causes with effects. This is a prerogative of the human individual that causative thinking is possible, whereas animals are incapable of doing that. They cannot remember things as we do. We can think of the past, and we can think ahead. This is the intellectual level.

Now, consciousness brilliantly manifests itself in the intellect, no doubt; but we are not satisfied merely with the intellect. Understanding alone does not make us happy. Happiness is a different thing altogether. The great Reality, the Supreme Being, is said to be constituted of three constitutive essences, we may say: sat, chit and ananda—Existence, Consciousness and Bliss.

We can see existence even in a wall or a brick, but not consciousness. We can see existence and consciousness in a human being where the intellect functions—when we think, or argue and speak; but we need not be happy at that time. So happiness is not necessarily a condition which follows intellectual functions, because even in the intellect there is an element of rajas. Happiness is possible of experience only when there is freedom from rajas totally. There should not be an iota of rajas or tamas if we are to be happy. If there is tamas, we will be asleep like a stone. If there is rajas, we are awakened from sleep and we are conscious of things, but not happy. In that condition of rajas, we are like muddled water which is shaky, where a reflection of the sun is possible, but not a clear reflection. Only when sattva predominates is there a clear reflection of Reality and we can experience happiness.

Happiness is what we seek. We can understand that it is not ordinary knowledge that we are after in this world. We are after knowledge for the sake of a satisfaction that it brings. And, how knowledge brings satisfaction is a very important topic. Happiness is what we are after; it is happiness for which everyone works, and happiness seems to be the aim and objective behind even the operation of consciousness in this world. Consciousness is incomplete, and existence is incomplete, if bliss is not there. That bliss is the ultimate content of the Absolute. How it comes, and how we are partially experiencing it in our individual lives, we shall see later.