Understanding the Koshas
I’ve been teaching about the koshas in my membership group this month and thought I’d share a few thoughts here. The koshas are the five layers of self, according to the Vedic tradition. They were originally laid out in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, so they are Vedic in origin rather than yogic - but traditionally - there is a lot of cross-pollination between Vedanta, Tantra, Yoga, and Ayurveda.
The koshas became common to use over the last 100 years or so because they’re such a great model for Yoga Therapy - they help us to understand the many integrated layers of self.
According to Vedanta, koshas are layers of self – like veils, that may be revealed through the process of inquiry until you are able to identify with the deepest truth of the self, the ātman, which is an individual drop of Brahman, the One. The very wellknown adage from the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad is:
ayam ātmā brahma
“This Self is Brahman.”
The Taittirīya Upaniṣad, offers five layers to the self that lead to the deepest, inner self, the ātmān. These layers move from crude to increasingly subtler: annamaya (body) → prāṇamaya (energy) → manomaya (mind) → vijñānamaya (wisdom) → ānandamaya (bliss).
Beyond the koshas lies the ātman, the ultimate true self – which has no characteristics, no personality, no mind to speak of. It is a drop of the undifferentiated Oneness, or pure consciousness, that is Brahman.
In Yoga Therapy, it can be more useful (and has become common) to think about koshas as “dimensions” as opposed to layers so that we can help people in any area where they’re stuck.
Because different traditions define koshas a little differently, the tools used to benefit each kosha may also be different. For example, prayer and ritual are characteristics of Vedic practices, not necessarily yogic (although, as I wrote above, there has been lots of cross-pollination over the years). Some traditional yoga teachers reject prayer and ritual because of the barriers of caste, and see yoga as a practice that should be open to all people. But pretty universally, yoga uses postures, breathwork, meditation, and some kind of ethical inquiry in an attempt to benefit all dimensions of self.
Yoga is an incredible, multi-dimensional tool that can help people in many areas of their lives.
We're studying the layers of the self this month in the Subtle Yoga Resilience Society. If you would like to learn more, click here.