# Pancha Kosha - Five Sheaths that CANNOT Cover Atma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA8UR8Jsyng

[00:17] A striking image encountered by students of Vedanta is of the 5 potions, the 5 sheets that are said to cover or enclose your true self, Atma, which is pure consciousness.
[00:44] The outermost layer is the uneme Akasha for food sheets, your physical body.
[00:51] Within that is the pranamaya kosha or energy sheets, the vital force that enlivens your body.
[00:58] Inside that is the mono my Akasha, the
[01:03] mind sheets were your thoughts emotions and sensations reside within that is the Vigano my Akasha the intellect sheets the abode of your decisiveness willpower and ego finally the innermost layer is the anandamaya kosha the so called bliss sheath
[01:28] [Music]
[01:32] illustrations like this one suffer from several mistakes the influence of Western culture is obvious in the rainbow hues used for quotients that are actually colorless another error is the depiction of achma the true-self in the center of the figure like the bullseye of a target Atma is pure consciousness which is vast limitless all pervasive
[02:04] like space being all pervasive it can't possibly be confined to a little spot enclosed by the five coaches
[02:11] you would be more accurate to represent Atma as the blue background
[02:20] [Music]
[02:26] but there's still a problem here
[02:29] if Atma is all-pervasive how can it be covered by the coaches it's impossible
[02:37] Atma can't be covered contained or confined by anything then why are these five layers called coaches or sheets as we will see rather than covering Atma they actually cover knowledge
[02:52] knowledge of Atma your true self to understand is better we can find the very first scriptural reference to the coaches in a
[03:06] section of the user veda known as the tight raya who punishes there it says
[03:13] HUS Mudville hater smartin notice of my heart onion tera heart Maharana Maya
[03:27] Danish Aparna within the self made of food the uneme Akasha is another self
[03:36] made of prana the pranamaya kosha the uneme Akasha is filled by the pranamaya
[03:45] kosha the text goes on to describe how each kosha is filled by the next kosha
[03:53] this idea that each kosha is filled by the next one can be seen in these
[03:59] Russian nesting dolls the outermost doll represents the unknown Maya kosha your
[04:07] physical body the doll inside represents the pranamaya kosha your lifeforce.
[04:16] the next doll represents the Manoa Maya kosha your mind.
[04:19] the next represents the Vig jnana Maya kosha your intellect and the innermost doll represents the anandamaya kosha the Bliss.
[04:35] the problem with this example is that it seems to imply that you are made of five layers with food or flesh as your outermost layer.
[04:46] but the type 300 punishin isn't an anatomy book its purpose is not to identify your inner bits and pieces.
[04:56] its purpose is to lead you to discover your true nature.
[05:00] Atma Shankar Acharya the great 8th century teacher of Vedanta wrote a
[05:10] brilliant commentary on the tide trio.
[05:12] who punish it.
[05:16] he explains that your true nature is to be discovered by negating or removing each of the five coaches one by one.
[05:23] but you can't just strip off your five coaches like peeling away the layers of an onion.
[05:30] so what does it mean to say the coaches must be removed.
[05:38] Shankar Acharya describes the coaches not as anatomical layers but as five layers of ignorance, five levels of confusion.
[05:49] each kosha is the focal point of wrong conclusions we make about ourselves.
[05:56] wrong conclusions that prevent us from discovering our true nature.
[06:04] even though these sheets can't cover Atma, they can cover or conceal a profound
[06:11] truth about the nature of Atma to strip away the cautious is to remove our wrong conclusions and erroneous notions one by one
[06:54] to explain this my guru loved to tell a story about a famous wealthy actor who played the role of a lowly beggar in a theatre production
[07:04] while performing for a huge audience he was treated with contempt by the other actors on the
[07:13] stage who heartlessly ignored his pleas for help even though he was shunned and despised.
[07:20] he felt quite pleased with himself because the audience was enjoying his dramatic performance and because he would soon receive a substantial payment for his acting work.
[07:36] but suppose that actor was so deeply immersed in his role that he forgot he was acting and became completely identified with the character he portrayed.
[07:49] then he might feel outraged by the callous indifference of his fellow actors in the show and he might shout at them an anger chastising them for their insensitive behavior.
[08:03] by doing so he would ruin the performance sometimes we too become overly identified with our
[08:16] roles roles like parent spouse doctor.
[08:20] manager and so on we usually take these roles very seriously maybe too seriously.
[08:25] for example suppose a loving husband.
[08:34] says goodbye to his wife and goes off to work.
[08:40] where all day long he plays the role of a combative hard-hitting attorney.
[08:47] in the evening when his wife expects her loving husband to return.
[08:54] imagine her confusion and frustration when a combative hard-hitting attorney comes home instead.
[09:03] her husband's over-identification with his work role can cause problems at home.
[09:09] just like the actors over-identification with his role can cause problems on the stage.
[09:13] we are
[09:17] all subject to becoming overly identified with our roles and when we do so we often play our roles with much less skill patience and understanding.
[09:31] not only that when we deeply identify with our roles the problems of those roles become our problems the actor took upon himself the problems of the beggar the husband brought home the Dublin's belonging to the attorney.
[09:54] this leads to the central principle taught by the five coaches whatever we identify with can become a source of suffering.
[10:05] when we identify with our physical bodies.
[10:09] unnhhh Amaya kosha the problems of our bodies become our problems if our nature is pure consciousness those problems
[10:20] don't truly belong to us but when we falsely identify with our bodies we inherit their problems the same holds true for the other quotients
[10:45] each kosha is a locus of false identification for example when your head throbs with pain you don't generally say my head hurts you say I have a headache
[11:04] if you lost use of your legs you might say I am crippled
[11:09] when your body grows old you're likely to say I am old
[11:13] and when your body can no longer function you might say I am dying
[11:27] the pure consciousness which is your true nature doesn't get headaches nor can it become crippled old or near-death.
[11:45] yet due to false identification with your body you're likely to say I have a headache.
[11:51] etc if you are completely free from such identification you would know that even when your head throbs with pain you are okay because the pure consciousness which is your true nature isn't affected by that headache at all.
[12:09] when your body is tired you often say I am tired.
[12:17] if your body has been weakened by illness or old age you might say I am weak but tiredness and weakness belong to your
[12:25] Pranamaya kosha not to you when sadness arises in your mind you usually say I am sad.
[12:35] And when your mind is agitated you might say I am agitated but sadness and agitation belong to your mind not to you.
[12:48] When your intellect lacks the information needed to make a decision you might say I'm confused.
[12:58] If you feel no motivation to do anything at all you could say I am lazy yet confusion and laziness belong to your intellect not to you.
[13:17] In this way each kosha is a locus of false identification and whenever you
[13:27] identify with them you adopt all the problems of your body prana mind and intellect as your own.
[13:37] fortunately the innermost kosha the anandamaya kosha doesn't have any problems to understand the anandamaya kosha consider this when you're awake.
[13:51] all five coaches are present in your experience when you're dreaming your physical body the uneme Akasha ceases to be present in your experience and in deep sleep none of the outer fork OSHA's remain present in your experience.
[14:13] only the anandamaya kosha remains and that's why you experience Ananda or bliss but when you wake up you re identify with the other cautious and
[14:29] become subject to their problems.
[14:31] once again.
[14:36] the point of all this is when you falsely identify with your body prana, mind or intellect you embrace all their problems as your own and they always have problems such as the human condition.
[14:55] but if you identify instead as being pure consciousness separate from the cautious and completely unaffected by whatever happens to them then you can gain tremendous inner freedom.
[15:11] so the goal is not to go deeper and deeper stripping away one kosha after another.
[15:22] the goal is to remove your identification with the kosha x' so that.
[15:29] you can remain entirely unaffected by their problems then you can abide in the knowledge that you are pure consciousness full and complete utterly independent of the five quotients
[15:49] [Music]
[16:28] you