Patanjali divides human being personality into five seeds and five bodies. Each body has specific purification methods, and after purifying each body, you will get access to another higher body. Yama’s and Niyama’s also have a significant role in purifying all five bodies. Everybody has its mysteries and more excellent qualities with more substantial space. Cleansing each body one by one or working on all the bodies simultaneously will lead to self-realization; beyond the bliss body, the Atman (the self) exists.
Five Kosha Names Elements
Serial In Sankrit In English In Sanskrit In English
1. Annamaya kosha Food body Prithvi Earth
2. Pranayama kosha Energy Body Tej Fire
3. Manomaya kosha Mental Body Jal Water
4. Vigyanmaya kosha Intuitive, wisdom body Vayu Air
5. Anandmaya kosha Bliss Body Akash Ether
Annamaya Kosha: In Sanskrit, Anna means food, and the food creates this body. In yogic terms, it is called a food body. The food body becomes impure by eating the wrong food the wrong way, eating without hunger, and living by eating and drinking alcohol, smoking, and taking drugs. This impurity affects the mind and emotions. What we eat we become, in Yoga balanced vegetarian, light diet is essential to purify the food body. When you do a yoga practice, you’re aiming for balance.
Pranmaya Kosha: This is a vital, energy body. This is bigger than the food body. The energy body becomes impure by air pollution, smoking, not having enough prana and oxygen in the body, and not doing enough physical exercise. Pranmaya kosha becomes purified in the natural air with regular exercise or yoga practice. Practicing yoga in various Pranayama methods increases the flow of the prana in the body and purifies the Pranamaya kosha.
Manomaya Kosha: In Sanskrit, man means mind. The English word man comes from the Sanskrit word man. Mind-body becomes impure by wrong thinking and actions, and there are no thoughts. When you start living on your own, spontaneously answering your life problems, you start growing in manomaya kosha when you become responsible.
Vigyanmaya kosha: This is wisdom and an intuitive body. — It is the intuitive body. Intuition is always direct and beyond reason, logic, and thinking. Living in doubt and mind, arguments, reasoning, and ignoring the inner voice makes this human body impure or inactive. Trust in yourself and your existence, the feeling of letting go, surrender, and receptiveness opens this body. The intuitive body takes you to very far out horizons, but still, there is one body more.
Anandmaya Kosha: In Sanskrit, Anand means Bliss. This is the state where the person can experience Bliss without any opposite polarity like every feeling has opposite polarity, pleasure, and pain, but Bliss stands alone. This Bliss is not depending on any external source; it is the inner flowering of meditation.
After Bliss, body Atman (self) resides. One more jump towards self and you become available, receptive, and reality reveals to you its nature. You don’t project. You are not searching for any argument or conclusion, nothing whatsoever. You are not even trolling. You are simply waiting, and reality reveals — it is a revelation. So that is the fifth body.