Pancha Kosha Viveka

Pancha Kosha (Five Sheaths) is explained in the 2nd chapter, Anandavalli section of the Taittiriya Upanishad where it says that these five sheaths cover our innermost Self, the Atman.

In the book “Pancha Dashi” the magnum opus of the great Advaita master Vidyaranya, the 12th Jadguru of Shankara Math, Sringeri, Karnataka, in his book the title of the 3rd chapter is "Pancha Kosha Viveka" and explains the "Pancha Kosha Viveka" in detail. From this we derived our inspiration for the title of this article and this post can be considered as a summary of that chapter.

The purpose of Pancha Kosha Viveka is to understand "Who am I?" which is called Self-Realisation and the brilliant Advaita Master Vidyaranya gives completely logical arguments to understand and comprehend this ultimate Truth.

Pancha Kosha, the Five Sheaths are Annamaya Kosha (Food Sheath), Pranamaya Kosha (Vital Air Sheath), Manomaya Kosha (Mental Sheath), Vignanamaya Kosha (Intellectual Sheath) and Anandamaya Kosha (Bliss Sheath). Please click on the provided links and read them as the Pancha Koshas, the five layers surrounding the Self, the Atman must be understood before reading this article.

After the Pancha Koshas (five sheaths) are understood, appreciated and set aside, still the doubt remains as to where is the Self, the Consciousness, the Awareness, the Atman. The great Advaita master Vidyaranya in his masterpiece work “Pancha Dashi” (A Book of 15 Chapters) goes about addressing the doubt in a powerful manner by converting the doubt itself into the answer.

If the doubt is about where is the Self after understanding about the Pancha Koshas (five sheaths), then Vidyaranya questions back by saying "Who understood it?". If it is agreed that the Pancha Koshas (five sheaths) can be experienced, then "Who is the experiencer?". He says that Knower, that Experiencer is verily the Self.

Next argument is that the Knower is always the subject, cannot be objectified and hence cannot be an object of experience, but the Experiencer itself. For example, the presence of an object or any number of objects can be ascertained by the eyes by seeing those objects. But the presence of the eyes themselves is ascertained by "experiencing" the ability to see. It would be ludicrous to ask for a mirror to look at so that we could look at our own eyes as another external object to confirm the presence of our eyes.

Continuing his masterclass, Vidyaranya says that if sugar is added to a glass of milk, it becomes sweet. If sugar is added to a jar of water, then it lends its sweetness to the water. To make the sugar taste sweet, we do not need to add more sugar to it as the sweetness is the inherent nature of the sugar.

Sugar + Milk = Milk becomes sweet

Sugar + Water = Water becomes sweet

Sugar + Sugar = STUPIDITY **@@%%!!!

In the same way, to become aware of the glass of milk we just need to become aware of it. Becoming aware of the milk means we know how much milk the cup contains, the shape of the container, whether the hot milk is steaming, etc. Basically, knowing everything about the milk that can be known. In the same way, if we focus our Awareness or Consciousness towards a TV, we become aware of the TV so that we get to know its size, color, brand, whether it is switched on or not, etc.

Consciousness + Milk = Milk becomes known

Consciousness + TV = TV becomes known

Consciousness + Consciousness = STUPIDITY, System Crash, Division by Zero **@@%%!!!

To know our Consciousness we cannot use or bring another Consciousness. In the previous paragraph, we saw that the Knower, the subject, cannot become a knowable object. So, to become aware of our Awareness or to become conscious of our Consciousness we do not have to do anything rather than “Just Be”. We need to keep the mind calm and just "exist" as a Thinker without doing any thinking.

The mind is the instrument required to experience the Awareness. That’s why in the deep sleep when the mind is taking rest we do not experience our Awareness. We just need to turn the mind inwards with a single-pointed concentration to become aware of our own Silent Awareness. Vidyaranya says just reject the objects or thoughts and remain with the Consciousness which is the Self.

In the next point, Vidyaranya chides us by saying how shameful it is for a person to utter loudly that “I do not have a tongue”. A person without a tongue should not be able to speak. With the tongue firmly in his cheek, Vidyaranya says that it should be considered shameful if a person with a tongue still goes ahead and makes such a statement. He says that the statement “I am not able to become aware of my Awareness” also belongs to the same shameful category.

Swami Anubhavananda in his translation of "Pancadasi" says that through the mind one can only know the object of knowledge and not the Knower of the object. This is like eyes can see all the external objects but can never see themselves. Thus, the impossibility of the subject ever becoming the object is established.

Every single thing we know, be it mathematics, science, philosophy, news, politics, sports, etc., are outside of us. We are the subject and the known is the object. We have been conditioned that way where everything we know is the object to be known, always outside of us and we are the Knower. The Knower and the known are always distinct, different and can never be the same.

Now the challenge is we need to know the Knower which is inside us, which cannot be objectivized and that is the barrier we need to cross. In this case the Knower and the one to be Known are the same and are not two different things. In such a case, the Knower can only be "experienced" and cannot be known the way we know the objects. The Knower cannot be known by the mind. We "experience" our seeing ability. In the same way, we just need to "experience" our knowing ability. Keeping the mind calm and silent, the Sentient Life Energy with the knowing ability, the thinking ability, the Silent Awareness could be experienced.

This points to the self-illumined nature (Swayam Prakasha) of the Awareness. Nothing else is required to experience our Awareness or to become aware of our Awareness or to abide in our Silent Awareness.

Awareness or Consciousness or Self or Atman, all refer to the same with different names and it is of the nature of self-existence, self-experience and self-illumination. To experience the Awareness, "just be silent", become aware of your own silence and enjoy being in that blissful Silent Awareness.

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