16/03/2026
In the yogic system, the human mechanism is made up of these five various layers of the body: Annamaya Kosha, Manomaya Kosha, Pranamaya Kosha, Vijnanamaya Kosha, and Anandamaya Kosha.
Let’s try to understand this in simple terms.
It’s like peeling an onion. When you start peeling an onion, you start peeling one layer beneath the other, until you come to the center. Similarly, every kosha is like a layer of the body beneath the one above. One can access that dimension of kosha when one peels the above kosha by entering deeper within.
The first body is the Annamaya kosha — The physical body, which refers to the food body, what we have gathered over a period of time. As “anna” means food, it is developed by what we eat.
The second body is the Manomaya kosha, the mental body, which refers to your mind, whereas “mana” simply means one’s mind.
Thus, in simple terms, your physical body — annamaya kosha is your hardware, and your mental body — manomaya kosha is your software, but these two things cannot do anything by themselves unless you plug them into quality power.
They would need qualitative energy to work in their optimum condition.
Here comes the third layer of the body, called the Pranamaya kosha, the energy body, which refers to the circulation of breath. All the breathwork in any energy practice is to empower one’s pranayama kosha.
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The fourth layer is called the Vignanamaya kosha, which refers to the power of intuition.
One can perceive things beyond the capability of your five senses, once one accesses this dimension.
This fifth dimension, referred to as the Anandamaya kosha, is the purely non-physical bliss body.
Whenever we can touch this dimension, we just feel blissful.
Anandmaya kosha is also referred to as “Brahma Anandam” in yogic terms, where “Brahma” means the ultimate and “Anandam” means the or****ic state.
Brahma Ananadam means the or**sm with the ultimate.
One is just ecstatic and blissful once one can access this dimension of the body.
