Vijnanamaya kosha Empowering wisdom-body

Dr Satish K Kapoor

The Taittiriya Upanishad (6th century BCE) and other ancient texts, including those of Tamil siddhas, mention that the human soul is covered by five kosha-s, layers or sheaths. Annamaya kosha, sheath of food, refers to the gross physical body. Sthula sharira, pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha and vijnanamaya kosha, sheaths of subtle life-energy, mind and intellect, respectively, constitute the subtle body. Sukshama or linga sharira, andamaya kosha, sheath of bliss, is called the causal body (karana sharira). All the five kosha-s are interwoven into one another. 

Of these, vijnanamaya kosha, also called wisdom-body, is associated with total awareness. It is the ground for intellectual and reasoning processes. 

Making of wisdom-body

Vijnanamaya kosha includes five sense organs of perception (nose, ears, eyes, tongue and skin) and  buddhi, the higher aspect of the mind. Buddhi is called vijnanamaya, as it is made up of both jnana, knowledge and vijnana, intelligence. Vijnana entails various modes of knowing like direct perception, inference, analogy, written word, presumption, non-apprehension, and experimentation, at normal levels of consciousness. It also includes the supraliminal level of thought processes, culminating into intuition.   

Buddhi and viveka

Katha Upanishad ( I.iii.3-6) compares the self of man  to the Lord seated in a chariot, the body to the chariot, the intellect to charioteer, the mind to reins, the senses to  horses, and  sense objects to the road along which the chariot is driven.  The unbridled horse can drive the chariot on a perilous journey. By channelizing buddhi or intellect, in the right direction, one can control the mind and the senses from going astray, and invigorate the wisdom-body.  

Taming the mindTo develop vijnanamaya kosha, one should live a righteous life, associate with holy persons, read or listen to sacred scriptures, chant the divine name, and resort to spiritual disciplines. The restless mind should be cleaned by daily prayer, tamed by positive attitude, calmed by rhythmic breathing, and focused by the sound-power of a mantra. It should be cultivated along the lines of truth and love, and illuminated by dhyana or meditation, so that one can go ‘deeper and deeper into consciousness – from the world of words to the world of thoughts, then beyond thoughts to wisdom in the self.’(Katha Upanishad I.iii.13). Equipped with true understanding one is able to distinguish between right and wrong, the good and the bad, the real and the unreal, the eternal and the ephemeral. 

Self awareness

Self awareness is identical with cosmic awareness. With the blossoming of wisdom-body, one moves from the darkness of ignorance to the light of supreme knowledge. The realization dawns that the whole universe is One Person; that cosmic intelligence permeates sentient and insentient beings; that life, in its various manifestations and forms, is only lila, a play of divinity. It leads to ananda or bliss. 

Being the modification of reflected consciousness of the Supreme Being, Vijnanamaya kosha is called ‘the empirical individual self’ that is subject to transmigration in accordance with one’s karma or actions. The Ultimate Reality is beyond the orbit of five sheaths. 

(Dr Kapoor is a noted author, educationist and spiritualist)