Human beings are complex constructs and it is not merely what we see through our bodily senses. It is not limited to what one experiences today as physical. This limited experience and interpretation is due to senses and brain processing. Let us start with this visible physical body, it is the Annamaya kosha, in literal sense food body. Look deeper, are you more than this mere physical body? This body is a system of seven interlocking bodies as mentioned below. Not only that, this body changes from child to teenager to adult and old, during this time, each cell dies, and new cells are born.
| Individual Name | Sanskrit name | Group / Self | Body/Mind/ Chit |
| Physical body | Annamaya Kosha | Physical / Bio- logical self | Body |
| Energy body | Pranamaya Ko- sha | Physical / Bio- logical self | Body |
| Individual Unconscious mind body (Program) | Karmamaya Kosha | Psychological/ Psychological self | Mind |
| Collective Human Mind body (Pro- gram) | Manomaya kosha | Psychological/ Psychological self | Mind |
| Wisdom of Self | Vignanamaya Kosha | Psychological/ Psychological self | Mind |
| Intelligence (Algorithms) | Gnanamaya Kosha | Spiritual / Spiritual Self | Chit (Chaitan- yam) |
| Consciousness, bliss | Anandamaya Kosha | Spiritual / Spiritual Self | Chit (Chaitan- yam) |
Broadly if we see our body construct, we can group them into three layers. Physical, Psychological and Spiritual. There is so much content from various sources about many layers and so on. But to avoid clutter, we have simplified it into three main layers to start with. Chaitanyam is Consciousness plus Intelligence. Physical body and mind are integral parts of Chit or Chaitanyam. There is enough knowledge about our physical body through our medical sciences, but there is very limited understanding on other layers of our body construct. Also there is limited knowledge about the energy body and at program levels and spiritual level. This is the fundamental understanding that each human being needs to be aware of. The intent of this chapter is to provide some basic Health is not just treating the physical body but healing the mind nourishing consciousness.
Understanding of human body construct at different levels so that some intellectual intent is generated to know more. If you observe the left side of the figure these layers are visible, but in real life through our human five physical senses we won’t be able to recognize any of these except the physical body.
- Physical level:
Annamaya Kosha: Physical form of a human being- that is the human body, which can be sensed through all our senses. This part of the body is made up of five elements (Air, Fire, Earth, Space and Water). This body needs to be nurtured with right sleep, right food, right water, right exercise, right physical activity, right posture, right medication. Even as believed by many philosophies, there is a cycle of birth and death with different bodies that means there is something more than this body which is very physical to this life only. Death is not just the end of the human body!.
Pranamaya Kosha: Energetic body, though this body is not visible, but closely associated to support the life functions. The Pranamaya Kosha is an energy body consisting of ductless glands, Chakras and Kun- dalini energy and channels and the entire Nadi system. Each one of these Chakras is responsible for controlling different parts of the brain and organs in the human body.
Both the above bodies are interlocked and work as autonomous systems. To a large extent Annamaya and Pranayama bodily processes are autonomous.
At this level what we experience is physical pain and the body has an autonomous system of healing. This planet can fulfill everyone’s physical body needs, there is abundance at this level.
- Psychological level:
This body is not in physical form, but it is formless, mostly in the form of biological programs, conditions, beliefs. There is a lot of content on this subject but mostly it is vague. Many people talk about psychology and
mind, but it is just at the surface level. Most of mental health problems arises at this layer individually or collectively. The largest problem today is emotional stress and anxiety with 284 million people around the world suffering from this. Fortunately, people are aware and across the globe they are spending a whopping $ 4 trillion dollars per year to de-stress in the form of vacations, meditations, re-treats, workshops etc, unfortunately most of these are temporary in nature. It is a complex subject to understand and less known to humanity.
This body consists of formless bodies as mentioned below.
Karmamaya Kosha:
It is part of the mind, it is an individual unconscious mind. This unconscious mind controls us mostly and it is two million times more powerful than our conscious or logical mind. This unconscious mind contains various programs, past life vasanas, programs from moment of conception, during womb, process of delivery and up to the first six hours and up to the age of six years. All of unconsciousness is nothing but memory and memory is past, past is what we call Karma. All this is stored in DNA and DNA has its own vibrations. It is the source of all our individual success or failures or problems.
Manomaya Kosha:
It is the domain of functions of the human collective mind. This collective memory or One mind is organized as a network of networks just like the internet. All of our brains are connected and each brain can access this common thought sphere like the way, one can access the internet by connecting at any point. The function of this Kosha is primarily to receive thoughts through the forehead center of eyebrows and broadcast through bindu back of head. All these memories are stored in the thought sphere and we receive thoughts from this and broad cast back to the thought sphere. It is something like each one of us is breathing in oxygen from One atmosphere and breathing out to the same One atmosphere.
Vignanamaya Kosha:
Is responsible for all the knowledge and conditioning that one has acquired. It also represents complete knowledge of Self. Knowing what good, bad and following dharma is guided by this Kosha. The other functions of Vignanamaya Kosha include providing the ordinary awareness for day-to-day intuitive working, which facilitates you in deciding what to do next and how to do it. Only from this Kosha you get intuitive solutions in intense situations when the logical mind is not able to answer your questions. The natural function of healing inside the human body is also governed by this Kosha.
All of the above three formless bodies are interlocked and work as autonomous systems. Each one of them affects others and vice-versa. At this level the thinking process happens automatically and thoughts are flown to the physical brain. These bodies together create an illusion of psychological self and thinker.
At this level what we experience is psychological pain – or called “suffering”. Physical body has autonomous healing capability but at this level there is no autonomous healing capability. Pills, tablets or medicines won’t work here, it may work but will have a side effect. At Psychological level: desires are infinite, and resources are limited. This planet won’t be able to fulfill all desires of every human being.
- Spiritual Level
Gnanamaya Kosha: This body consists of true wisdom on ultimate reality as a Brahman or Unmanifest energy. It is true wisdom about body, mind and spirit, not conditioned by perceptions. It is responsible for all the knowledge and intuitive functioning of human beings. Here merge all forces.
Anandamaya Kosha: Carrying the core desire with a purpose to manifest and experience joy. This is the core body of one’s being that has a pure part of universal consciousness (Paramatma) experienced as eternal joy or bliss. Other functions of this Kosha include co-creation like the creator himself. At this level it is just bliss and joy, then one must question ourselves, then where from this suffering arises ?
Spiritual pain is seeking a liberation from all.
Due to divisive consciousness and defects in programs, today each one of us is perceiving, we are separate from others and this is the root cause for all suffering. What we are perceiving as your body or my body is not right, there is just one body, One Prana, One Kundalini, One mind, One atmosphere. What is there is just one Chaitanyam (Consciousness plus Intelligence) it is infinite like an ocean, like the waves are rising and ceasing within this ocean, physical and nonphysical platforms are created within this Chaitanyam. We are part of these platforms, taking births and deaths like water droplets in wave rising and ceasing. For instance, physical platforms like earth, water, fire, and atmosphere are being used by all of our bodies as a platform as a service on need basis. Similarly there are non-physical platforms that exist like a distributed storage in the unconscious mind and One Mind. What you see these interlocked bodies are existing independently by using common platforms. Each one of them belongs to their own respective platform. All of them came together and worked as one entity or one human being. It is not only our cells, even billions of good bacteria are working for us. Your body is not your body, it has got its own intelligence. Its organs, cells, tissues, autonomous functions etc are managed by completely these platforms. Similarly for all other bodies, hence there is nothing like I or mine.
It is a complex web of services being used like micro services from these platforms working collaboratively for an individual life. There is so much complexity involved in the back end. There are many evolved physical and non-physical platforms to support life on this planet. Each one of us is using the services of these platforms on a need basis, just like Uber and Airbnb services when needed and none of us claiming that they are mine. Similarly, the platforms required to create our bodies like atmosphere, earth, fire, water, thought sphere, electromagnetic spectrum etc. All these platforms are providing services for our individual life and survival.
Waves Rising and Ceasing in vast Ocean
Human body – interlocked – layers
Now let us dissect this complex individual body hypothetically, in reality, we cannot. Then we can view three broad layers:
Spiritual (extreme left), Psychological (middle), Physical (extreme right). Of course, in the very near future in between psychological and physical, man-made layer is also coming – like voice- based services – Amazon- Alexa, Apple -Siri, Google Assistant with back end support of very advanced Artificial Intelligence. In the future, this AI could control the humans -physical and psychological bodies just like the way the mind is controlling us now. We are already controlled by this AI which is in mind and on top of it, this man-made AI will become another layer to control these bio-computers.
Human Body – Interlocked – Senses at Different Levels
We all experience the five sense organs at physical body level interacting with the outside environment, all these sensory inputs go through the brain and are processed. Our medical science is very much aware of these five sensory autonomous systems.
At psychological body level there is one more sensor located between eyebrows which is thought sensor. Through this sensor, thoughts are received and processed through the brain and the brain also broadcasts the thoughts through bindu at the back of our head? These sensors work as autonomous systems.
In addition to this, at energy centers or Chakras, when they are activated, they do open the doors to receive cosmic vibrations.
At Spiritual body level there is one more sensor, generally called as third eye, located in Pineal gland. Mostly Chakras and Pineal gland sensors are dormant or nonfunctional to humanity currently. In addition to above, there is another important communication that happens is through heart electro-magnetism, possibly through resonance. Normally, we sit in the presence of high conscious beings or sages, they pass on their state to other people present in that field.
Human body – Interlocked – : “Form less virtual self”
What we see, this physical body through the senses is something like an app ICON on your laptop or your smartphone. But behind ICON, there are different programs from simple to complex and no way by looking at the ICON, you can experience the capability of that ICON. But when you execute it there is a lot behind ICON to experience. This ICON may be like physical body which is visible to your eye, but behind that lot of invisible programs are executed, similarly, our physical body is a form in space and time, but there is much more behind this visible body in the form of programs and formless fields. If we ever experience virtual reality using a headset, you can experience a completely different world which is controlled by the program that is written and sensors and what you want to see in that space and time. When you remove that head set,
you are completely free of that. Similarity, so called whole reality of physical world is another virtual reality that nature has programmed in to us. We can relate so called reality that we are experiencing is something like virtual reality that one can be experiencing using sensor, gear and programs. Similarly, we are all like agents (conscious and unconscious) like chatbots are connected in vast social networks, beyond space and time.
At Quantum level, every real thing that we see looks like nothing, from formless to form as shown below. Does Physical form exists? Or is this whole Universe is a Holographic with a Hologram consisting of huge programs. It is only these programs in between including processors like the brain create that perception that formless becomes form. All these programs are stored at different levels in the form of distributed cloud, distributed processors and distributed Deep Learning Artificial Intelligence. At each level, there is virtual self-evolved, namely biological self , psychological self, authentic self, in- authentic self and shadow self, etc. But for our discussion point of view, we will limit to only three, at physical level- biological self, at programs level – psychological self and at formless – spiritual self. Each of this self has its own needs, independent of other self ’s. Each of these bodies and their respective self ’s have different needs and desires and this understanding is required and must be fulfilled to move to next level. It is easy to fulfill the needs of biological self, One faces a problem in balancing the desires of psychological self. One must fulfil those needs holistically. We will see them more elaborately in next section.
We must understand cause and effect relationships for the experiences of these different bodies and self ’s. These experiences have a perception of positive and negative sides. For instance at the physical body level, when it is hurt, we experience pain. Then we try to take steps to heal that physical hurt and reduce the pain. Physical pain due to injury or hurt on the physical body brought you awareness or attention that your body is not normal and you need to take care or visit a doctor or hospital. We have a reasonable amount of scientific knowledge in supporting to treat that hurt and reduce the pain, also our body has an in-built autonomous system to recover from that hurt. At physical body level we can experience pain and pleasures. Similarly, at other levels we go through other forms of pains, and those names are different. Let us understand these differences first, then we can understand better on how to reduce them.
| Body | Positive experi- ence | Negative experi- ence | |
| Physical real one like a injury, affects body, like hunger, disease, wound etc | Pleasure | Pain |  |
| Psychological Problems in family, re- lationships, work place. All kinds of emotions like fear, jealous etc. | Happiness | Suffering |  |
| Spiritual questions like Who am I?, suffocation, seek- ing liberation from all bondages | Bliss | Existen- tial |  |
Surprisingly at any given time for an individual, below equation holds good and it is inevitable. Everyone has to be in one or more of these three pains at any given point in time, either physical or psychological or existential, of course it keeps on shifting. One cannot be free of all three sufferings. If one comes down other will go up. If someone says, I have no suffering at all, then either he is enlightened or he is lying or he is a fool. Because, one can not violate Buddha‘s noble teaching- “
Mathematically, for all human beings
Physical + Psychological + Spiritual suffering = Constant.
Physical body
In This section, we will look in to two parts, one is Physical body and second one is Energetic body.
We all agree that it is a marvelous piece of creation by nature even at physical level. Our science and technologies including medical science, engineering, robotics, and technologies like computers, communication, networking, Cloud, AI and 3D printing all of them are trying to mimic this marvelous biological piece.
Our physical body at a high level is made up of more than 50 trillion cells grouped into tissues, organs,systems and so on. All of it just started physically from one single cell each from your father and mother. They multiplied into so many with different forms like softest tissue like brain, life support liquid like blood and hard bones, limbs and best visionary cells like eyes and hearing and cleaning organs and so on. It is supported by few more trillion cells of good bacteria which are completely not yours but they are aiding to sustain your bodily functions like digestion etc.
Our Physical body is sophisticated and it is very complex. It has a super computer, with parallel processing and a compact memory which can be stored and accessed at very high speeds. Greatest sound system, with just two ears, fantastic electrical impulse nervous system, greatest blood circulation system. There are so many complex systems, we don’t even know the full capacity of our physical body, leave aside other bodies. In spite of such a huge complexity, today using Artificial Intelligence and Synthetic limbs, we are creating artificial limbs. We’ve reached a new level in Bionics. Improved amputation techniques are giving amputees with advanced prosthetic limbs a feeling of control comparable to that of their original arms and legs, according to new research out of MIT.
Current medical science has progressed well in understanding the physical body to a large extent. Our intention is not to repeat what medical science books has, but to look holistically beyond our physical body.
Sooner or later, we can possibly create a true bio robot almost close to human beings in a lab not through biological parents. Caution, it is just a physical body but it is just impossible to create a true and complete human being. Creating and making him a complete human being is complex and involves the whole Universe not just biological parents. Your physical body is not separate as you perceive and it is not just yours. If you go further even, your physical body is not separate from my physical body. We are so much attached to our body and keep saying “My body”. If we go one step further you will find another interesting fact about our body. This body has been there since primitive times, you did not build it. In reality even the food going into your body also hasn’t been created by you. The main reason for your food is Mother Earth, similarly even the air in the form of carbon in every little atom, you did not create it. The large percentage of water which constitutes your body is also not produced by you. When you haven’t created even one part of what constitutes your body, where is “Your body” as you all say it to be? If you examine it deeper and see it’s not only “Your body”, but also that the whole humankind has only one body becomes crystal clear. This body has fully developed autonomous systems from cellular, tissue, organ and system and full body functions. All of our bodies are created with the support of the same platforms. When there is fear, everyone’s body shivers the same. When there is sadness, everyone’s eyes have tears in itself. When there is happiness, everyone’s face radiates joy. When it is so, what is there is one body itself, isn’t it?
When your illusion about your body as a separate entity disappears, realization about the whole humanity as one body system dawns in. Your body is a blessing from Divine, your body is a medium given to you. The duty that you have on this earth is to take proper care of it. Whatever color you are born of, however you are born, you do not have the right to destroy it. If the body is not the way you desire it to be, you have no right to abuse your body or to destroy or kill it.
Pranic or Energetic body consists of prana, meaning life or life-force. These different types of life-force circulate in and along channels (called Nadi’s). The nadis are our energetic irrigation system, in essence, they keep us alive. The human body contains 72,000 nadis that channel prana to every cell. There are three main channels or arteries of prana are Ida nadi, Pingala nadi and Sushumna nadi as shown in the following figure. Along the Sushmana nadi, there are junctions of pranic energy known as Chakras. These Chakras are another major component in our energetic bodies. High concentration of neuropeptides exists at these Chakra junctions.
Ida: Crisscrosses up the spine and ends at the left nostril. Breathing in and out of the left nostril creates a calming effect. Ida is feminine and cooling breath stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system.
Pingala: Crisscrosses up the spine ending at the right nostril. Breathing in and out of the right nostril causes heat and prepares for digestion and concentration. This breath is masculine and stimulates the sympathetic nervous system.
Sushumna: Moves directly up the spinal column and balances the Ida and Pingala.
The Nadis: The nadis are energy channels that carry prana (life-force energy) to and from the vayus. There are approximately 72,000 nadis channeling energy throughout the subtle body within an intricate network. Energy is transported to all areas of the body and congregates at the chakra centers, areas of important glands and tissues.
Chakras: These are ductless glands and are centers of pranic energy (life-force) in the body responsible for the balance at all levels of being, physical, psychological and spiritual. Chakras are located near vital glands and nerve centers, which control the circulation of prana. Each chakra can open specific areas of the brain. The psychic centers can lie dormant. These seven chakras are located along the Sushumna pathway, which flows through the spinal cord, beginning at the perineum and ending at the top of the head. Names of these major seven chakras are: Mooladhara, Swadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Visiddhi, Agneya and Sahasrara as shown in Fig. The chakras are connected to the network of nadis.
Pancha Pranas: According to the yoga tradition there are five major currents of vital force that run through the body and organize its physiological functioning. This is known as the Pancha Vayu Model.
Pancha Pranas, Nadi’s, Chakras , Kundalini energy at Pranic body level and glands located in the physical body are interconnected and affect our wellness in both directions. As we see in below Fig, these invisible Pancha Prana vayus, Kundalini, Chakras are impacting physical glands in the human body. These physical glands, Pancha Prana vayus, Chakras are co-located in physical and subtle bodies.
If you think about your day-to-day functioning, you will see that it follows a predictable pattern: you take things in (food, water, information, experiences); then you process them one way or the other; then you absorb the nutrients or knowledge from the processing; you eliminate the stuff that you don’t need; and as a result you grow, both physically and mentally. So whatever physiological issue you are experiencing, it can usually be understood in terms of vayu function:
Here is a quick outline of the vayus and the practices that might help bring them back to balance.
PRANA vayu is responsible for the INTAKE. It moves downward and inward, providing the basic energy that drives us in life. It is primarily located in the head, lungs and heart. Imbalances in Prana flow can show up as anxiety, fear, anger (head); breathlessness, asthma, sleep apnea (lungs); heart palpitations or stroke (heart)
APANA vayu is responsible for elimination. It moves down and out and helps retain things in. It is primarily located in the lower abdomen and is associated with functions of elimination, reproduction and bone health (regulating the absorption and retaining of minerals). Imbalances in Apana flow can show up as constipation/diarrhea, IBS; menstrual problems, sexual issues; bone density issues.
SAMANA vayu is responsible for processing things and moves toward the center in a churning motion. It is concentrated around the navel. It is responsible for digestion on all levels, including the mind. It is associated with processes of digestion, absorption and assimilation. Imbalances in Samana vayu function include metabolism issues, poor digestion, bloating, loss of appetite.
VYANA vayu is responsible for distribution. It moves outward in a circular, pulsating motion. It is located in the heart and lungs and is involved in cardiac activity, circulation and voluntary nervous system. Imbalances may show up as poor circulation, blocked arteries, heart attack, edema; peripheral neuropathy, symptoms of MS. Vyana and Samana vayus are opposite as forces of expansion and contraction. Vyana allows for differentiation of elements and grants each their separate sphere of activity. Samana brings about the integration of the elements and keeps them connected. Samana regulates agni (digestive fire) with fuel, which must burn evenly. Vyana governs the movement of prana through the nadis, keeping them open, clear, clean and even in their functioning.
UDANA vayu is responsible for growth. It moves upward and is a result of other vayus working properly. It governs our ability to stand, our speech, effort, enthusiasm and will. It is concentrated near the diaphragm and throat and is responsible for certain respiratory functions, speech and mental functioning (by supporting the blood movement to the brain). Imbalances in Udana vayu functioning include asthma, emphysema; stuttering, voice hoarseness; depression, poor memory, lack of creativity, direction or goals.
This body has got its own needs: This body needs a certain amount of clear air to breath, clean water to drink and hygiene food to eat, right sleep, right exercise to survive at physical level. As long as the above needs are met for a physical and energetic body at required time intervals, it doesn’t bother.
This body has its own self, a biological self-evolved around age between 16 months to 24 months.
Psychological body
This is a complex subject to understand and unfortunately less known. If we have to make corollary to Information Technology, our physical body is like a laptop or desktop or a smartphone or even Alexa kind of edge device. Whereas operating system, application software etc. are programs. The physical body provided by Nature could be considered as hardware. This tremendously advanced species of humankind has created a software based on the hardware provided by Nature. This software consists of beliefs, perceptions, religions, myths, cultures and any number of stories on which it runs. The sum total
of this psychological content could be termed the software or mind that is running the species.
A significant section of this software is limiting in nature and it is detrimental to the experience of living. One of the most defective software that has become part of the human system is the illusory identity of the thinker or psychological self. This is illusory and this psychological self is emerging due to sensory coordination. We must set humanity totally and completely free of all limiting and destructive software.
This body contains programs which are stored at different levels as Karmamaya Kosha, Manomaya Kosha and Vignanamaya Kosha. Generally referred as mind, which has got almost 10 levels of programs and our life is an expression of these programs and these programs are stored in distributed at almost 10 levels and collectively or loosely we call it as mind. First program which comes from our past lives vastly controls our life, the second program is the genetic program that is our parents and family programs, skills learned by our ancestors are passed on through these programs. Third program is from the moment of conception to delivery, called four baskets and actual moment of delivery and first six hours. Fourth program from the first six hours to six years, what events
are happening, how did you are treated etc. Fifth program, which is from age six to current day. One Mind is the sixth program, collective brain or collective human mind. Followed by other programs at higher global level acting on us.
These 10 programs can grouped mainly under following koshas
Karmamaya Kosha: It contains programs that are stored all over the body, mostly in DNA. It contains our Karma, beliefs, and patterns and so on. It is part of the mind, it is an individual unconscious mind. This individual unconscious mind contains various programs, past life vasanas, programs from moment of conception, during womb, process of delivery and up to the first six hours and up to the age of six years. By the time a child evolves to a conscious state, most of the fundamental perceptions about life are programmed into the individual unconscious mind. Perceptions acquired by an individual begin to arise in utero itself and can continue till death. However, the process of acquiring these perceptions remains at its peak between the age of zero to six years. At this age, a child’s brain remains at Delta (0-2 years) and Theta (2-6 years) level of activity. Only at the age of six, the child slowly starts sustaining active conscious (Alpha activity) mind comes into picture. By the time the child attains the age of six, his/her fate or perceptions and blueprint of life are decided, hence it is utmost important for the parents to provide the right environment to their child between zero to 6 yrs. There are about 64 varieties of karmas as we rise in consciousness, some of them disappear, others do not. For an awakened person, the karma exists but won’t affect.
Every negative thought, the word we utter, our deeds are creating blockages in the body and affecting our health through Anger, Jealousy, Judgement, Love, Joy, etc. It enters our Karmic Bank. Some childhood decisions made from hurts, bad relationships, wrong lifestyles could also lead to diseases as mentioned below.
| Hatred | Liver Problems |
| Excessive Hatred | Cancer |
| Jealousy and Fear | Ulcer |
| Suppression of emotions | Stress |
| Stress | Heart |
| Accumulation of Hurts | Arthritis |
| Inner Violence | Kidney problems |
| Not able to forgive others | Almost every possible disease throughout life |
Manomaya kosha: It is a collective human mind, also called One Mind. It is in the form of a platform, which contains collective programs, which are a collective experience of humanity. This Mind is not just your mind or my mind; it is just One Mind, like One Atmosphere. But where exactly is it stored? Answer possibly lies, either it is stored in earth magnetic fields or Moon or even planets and beyond. When we relate mentally or emotionally with the world, then we express Manomaya. Our emotions of fear, hatred, depression, anger, jealousy or compassion are played out on this level. Ego and its natural characteristics and needs are manifested in the domain of Manomaya. Mind is nothing but flow of thought, just like flow of water is river (river is just name given, but water is substance flowing). Similarly, Mind is flow of thoughts and thoughts are substance stored in the thought sphere like air is in the atmosphere and these thoughts are entered through Agneya chakra and brain processes and leaves from bindu behind the brain. These thoughts are measurement and thoughts are controlling us. Mind survives through continues becoming from so-called negative to ideal.
There are opposites in a discrete nature that we perceive like good and bad, perfect and imperfect, jealousy and Non jealousy bad, right and wrong, low and high.
Vignanamaya Kosha: All the knowledge and conditioning that one has acquired. Knowing what good, bad and following dharma is guided by
this Kosha. The natural function of healing inside the human body is also governed by this Kosha. In this body subtle intelligence evolves, this cosmic computer that stores memories, impressions as well as governs many senses or limbs. Similar to how we store our work on computers in the form of files into computer memory. This memory could be on the same computer or across distributed places, just the way Google stores the data. Only when we search or access them, without knowing where it is coming from, we get the information. We talked three main bodies at psychological level, but all of them mainly consists of nature made platforms and using these platforms, species at individual and at collective level experiences are stored including humans at possibly ten levels of distributed storage and this acts through individual unconscious. We can make a direct correlation on how nature created the platforms using master algorithms and content is created at end user level and this content is stored using distributed storages virtually. This content is used by algorithms for learning and refining the evolution process like improving the prediction in digital world.
Similar to physical body where biological self is present with its boundaries, at this level there is also psychological self which has evolved around age between 16 months to 36 months.
This psychological self has certain needs which are unique and it’s desires need to be fulfilled. There is a good attempt made by our great psychologists and they proposed various theories on this subject. There are various theories proposed (viz. Abraham Maslow, Herzberg two factor theory, McGregor X and Y theory, Alderer’s ERG theory, Mc Clelland achievement theory and so on).
In 1943, Maslow proposed a simple psychological theory on human needs as they relate to motivation and the order in which they progress. Maslow hierarchy of need theory proposes that people are motivated by multiple needs and that needs exist in hierarchical order.
| Physiological need | Food, shelter, water, clothing, sleep |
| Safety need | Physical, financial, health, personnel, emo- tional |
| Social need | Love , Belonging |
| Esteem need | Respect, achievement, need for status |
| Self-actualization need | Desire to become what one is capable of becoming |
The needs in Maslow’s hierarchy include physiological needs (food and clothing), safety needs (job security), and social needs (friendship), self-esteem, and self-actualization. When physiological, safety needs are met, then social and love needs become important. These needs are specifically ordered, so one cannot be met before the one preceding it. Let us differentiate subtly above needs at biological self and psychological self-level.
| Physiological need | Food, shelter, water, clothing, sleep | Biological self : Phys- ical body |
| Safety need | Physical, financial, health, personnel, emotional | Psychological self: Psychological |
| Social need | Psychological self: Psychological | |
| Esteem need | Respect, achievement, need for status | Psychological self: Psychological |
| Self-actualiza- tion need | Desire to become what one is capable of becoming | Psychological self: Psychological |
One must have a holistic understanding of human needs. It is not only biological and psychological self needs, but must include spiritual self needs. There are different needs at various self ’s. Let us understand a bit more on the needs of Biological, Psychological self ’s in this section. In the next section, we will see spiritual self needs.
| Physical Body. Bio- logical self | Physiological needs, like food, water, air, shelter, clothes | |
|---|---|---|
| Psychologi- cal self | 1. Certainty : Need for security for Wealth, Health, Relationships | Today’s world, change is happening so fast. When there is fast change certainty is limited and hence security is a concern. Otherwise, it may lead to anxiety and depression |
| 2. Pleasure: Pleasure is needed but extreme pleasure like enter- tainment or alcohol- ism etc, this leads to failure of intelligence | All sorts of desire for pleasure as long as it is not hurting others. | |
| 3. Variety: need for va- riety not the same and repetitive | Not the same one, then it is boring. Variety of food, dress etc. | |
| 4. Need to love and need to be loved | A constant check in relation- ships, I am needed? | |
| 5. Significance: Need to make me feel im- portant | Self needs a significance and importance. Fulfil in con- structive and positive way for yourself and others who are in relation to you. | |
| 6. Growth: Need to grow | Growth is necessary, other- wise people get dull. It could be money, knowledge, expe- rience. | |
| 7. Contribution: Need to contribute | Contribution whether it is money, knowledge or service etc. |
Games of the Psychological self:
Psychological self is a good businessman, it plays these ego games. Self is doing this, it is an illusory self not physical body or biological self. Due
to this we spoil relationships, spoil our health, drain our energy and waste our time.
Six Ego games:
- Domination,
- Refusing to be dominated,
- I am right,
- You are wrong,
- Struggle for Survival,
- Cover up
- Mask
Our understanding of psychological self- needs and desires are unlimited. We must understand and balance the needs and self-ego games to certain extent, at least be aware of.
Seven balances of the self:
It is easier to take care of physical body or biological self needs. But it is not that easy to fulfill needs and desires of psychological self. It is easy to say to control desires of psychological self but, following middle path or avoiding falling in to any of extreme side is not that easy. Mukthi (Enlightenment) and Moksha (Salvation) paths can be attained either of extreme paths or Middle path. There are instances, where few individuals attained on these extreme paths. However, it is easy, safe to attain in middle path. In real life, it is not that easy to follow middle path. Now question is how to be on middle path, is it possible to be on middle path without changing certain hardware of human brain?
| One extreme end | Mid- dle | Other extreme end |
| Certainty: Life itself is process and change is permanent, if there is no change and 100 % certainty, there is no fun in life and it becomes just mechanical. | Uncertainty: Too much of uncertainty leads to chaos, stress. One starts seeing negative and feels insecure. | |
| Indulgence: Pleasure is needed but extreme pleasure like entertain- ment or alcoholism etc, this leads to failure of intelligence. We have to use our will power if possible, where to stop and what is the limit. | Abstinence (Denial): Pleasure is needed , oth- erwise life is boring, not interested in any thing. | |
| Dominance: To fulfil one need, even if it is required to crush oth- ers one will do. | Sub Severance: act of considering your wishes as less important than those of other people: | |
| Possessiveness: It belongs to me and shall belongs to me only, not to others. They shall listen whatever I say. Sometimes others are suffocated, don’t feel any freedom. | Indifference or Loveless ness: Heart is not flow- ered, became like a stone. Not interested to show connectedness. Mostly hurt by others. | |
| Extreme seeking: Going for more and more and taking risk. Un answered questions , seeking answers through experiences. | Extreme Resignation (compromise): Leaving it to fate. | |
| Perfection: Seeks a perfection in everything, where it is not important. | Carelessness: Takes it easy, people will not trust their deliverables. | |
| Synthesis or Birds eye view: Shows interest in high level view. | Analysis or Worms eye view: Gets in to minute details. |
Spiritual body
his boDy is equivalent to Chaitanyam, which is Pure Consciousness plus Intelligence. In other words, Anandamaya kosha and Gnanamaya
kosha are part of this body. Here the self is “ I”, when all contamination purged from “ i” then what remains is Chaitanya. There is nothing like a separate spiritual self, but it is the same pure Consciousness vibrating at different frequencies. It is vibrating at different frequencies since it cluttered with programs that we saw at psychological body level. This spiritual self has its needs and it wants to make its own journey to attain those needs. Not meeting this spiritual self needs leads to existential suffering. Existential suffering hits occasionally that even though we are fulfilling almost all biological and psychological self needs, still there is
some unknown pain. That is when you need to see your condition, where you are stuck, how to liberate yourself from the bondage. This suffering is Nature’s way of taking us to a spiritual path. When we begin to suffer due to limitation or bondage, then we start noticing our limitation and something hindering our freedom to experience, something is separated from our true self. Separation caused this suffering.
It is like a child realizes after some time in spite of great care being taken at cradle school or hostel that he or she is missing her/his mother. When he or she realizes this, starts crying. We should awake to this suffering and aware of bondage, otherwise we will happily continue this life and die without doing much. We will just live like any animal without using human potential.
It is Nature’s way, after many lifetimes of unconscious living, it creates eventually enough suffering. When we begin to suffer and question ourselves and our surroundings, our relationships etc, initially, we start looking outside to fix this suffering, try to blame and correct others instead of looking into ourselves. We try to change or expect to change
people, relationships around us which is not the solution rather they are helping us like a mirror to look inside of us and change needs to happen inside. This is the start of a real journey, to go back home or on the path of spiritual journey.
It is like a process of learning by un learning. What actually happens is as you grow in your levels of consciousness, your self keeps on expanding and expanding and expanding. Finally, you alone exist; that is, you have become humanity. You have become creation and at one point you become the God you have created. So the self-expands to such a point where all that exists is only you. You have become humanity. Now that becomes the ultimate self, but at a lower level, when you use the word “spiritual self,” we are referring to witness consciousness or small “i”. This self or the soul is witness consciousness.”
For more details, you can refer to chapter – Consciousness but in a nutshell this self wants a liberation from this normal unconscious living and move towards Enlightenment and God realization. We don’t even bother to understand these needs and try fulfilling. Do we know the path of this journey, milestones and destination and finally how to reach? These questions are left to you!
| Normal Unconscious being | ||
| Spiritual self | 1. Conscious being | Man with effort become conscious of |
| 2. Man with effort become conscious of | Change in physical brain. Man cannot make on his own. This has to be given to him | |
| 3. Awakened being | Change in physical brain. Man cannot make on his own. This has to be given to him | |
| 4. Enlightenment (Mukthi) | Declutch the Mind | |
| 5. Oneness being | Only one sense works at any time | |
| 6. Light Being | Change in Heart. Could be anywhere, any time on this planet but only at one place. | |
| 7. Space Being | Could be at many places at the same time | |
| 8. Union with Supreme light | Entering and merging with Supreme Light |
Man’s consciousness is fettered by concepts, ideas, conditionings, and mental constructions. When consciousness is purged of all its contamination what remains is life, pure consciousness, or Divine. Hence Sri Bhagavan defines awakening as ‘liberation of life itself ’. This total and unconditional freedom elucidated in the following verse called Liberation Sutra.
Awakening Is
Liberation of Life Is
Liberation from the senses Is
Liberation from Self Is
Liberation from the Mind Is
Liberation form Knowledge Is z
Liberation from Conditioning Is
Liberation from Society Is
Liberation from Work This is truth.
Liberation of Life
Awakening at a very fundamental level is to ‘live life’. The scriptures define an awakened one as someone who is able to hold his or her senses under control. Truly, awakening on the other hand is liberation ‘of ’ the senses or freeing the senses from the clutches of the mind. The mind with its judgments and commentaries interferes with every sensory perception, making it stale and lifeless. If not for this interference of the mind, the human nervous system is capable of generating bliss through every sensory experience – be it seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touch, irrespective of the object of the experience. Thus one whose senses are liberated transcends the life of the mind and experiences the life of the senses.
Human being’s consciousness is fettered by concepts, ideas, conditionings, and mental constructions called Mind. When consciousness is purged of all its contamination what remains is life, pure consciousness, or Divine. Hence one needs to start a preparation towards declutching from Mind and start living an awakening life or in Oneness.
Liberation from the Self
Self is the sense of separate existence. Whenever there is the ‘me’ and the ‘other’ the result is fear – fear of what the other would do to me. Out of fear, struggle for survival, comparison, jealousy, hatred, all the rest are born. Self is only a concept. A concept by definition is something that does not exist in reality. It is an illusion.
Liberation from the Mind
The popular notion about freedom from the mind is either cessation of the mind where you enter a state of ‘thoughtlessness’, or transformation of the mind where the mind experiences greater freedom and peace within itself. Truly liberation is neither of these. It is the cessation of the effort to stop or change the mind. Then you are free ‘with’ the mind. The mind with its contents exists independently only to aid you with practical issues of life but does not interfere with the experience of life itself.
Liberation from Conditioning
The ideas of communism, capitalism, equality, nationality, religion, etc., have been developed by humans over millennia. These ideas and concepts have a life of their own. They are making use of your life for their survival. They enter you as a ‘thought bug’ and color every experience of life. Liberation from conditioning is not to be devoid of any idea or concept but to be free to choose them in functional matters of life.
Liberation from Society
Ultimately human beings are bound by the concept of ‘freedom’ itself. He or she thinks freedom is achieved by going against the existing system and the norms of the society. ‘Freedom’ is essentially an internal state of existence where you no more arise from fear. Hence there is no suffocation or resistance against any structure, law, or value that ‘society’ stands for. Freedom is not a revolt against something. It is a state of consciousness that has no opposites.
Liberation from Knowledge
It is liberation from the bondage of knowledge and not knowledge itself. When knowledge is not translated into an experience it becomes a hindrance to the very experience that you have set out to achieve. Knowledge that is an obstacle to the experience of life is a burden and bondage. Hence has to drop.
Liberation from Work
We must differentiate activity from action. Activity is an escape from inner void or pain of existence. It is done as a means to an end. You work, drive, cook, clean, pray because you have a psychological need behind all these that you want to fulfill. Action is where the destination or the purpose exists in a physical sense but not in a psychological sense. The experience is an end in itself. It arises from an inner state of joy and freedom. While the awakened man also works he is free from the tyranny of work.
ManmaDe: Virtual self (assistant) using artificial intelligence
By This time, one will realize, human beings are just another gadget or bio-computer controlled by a set of distributed programs, supported by platforms generated by Master Algorithms like AI.
These programs are capable of self-learning (like machine learning), these learnings are stored at distributed virtual storages like individual DNA, heart magnetic fields, Collective at earth magnet fields, Moon and higher levels at Planetary level and Galaxy center point and so on.
We see, feel, and touch our physical body with our senses. We think that is all to it, but our body is not only just physical body, but a one small string in a web of humanity. Just like one single website or IOT device on the internet platform.
With the advent of digital disruptive technologies, we can correlate manmade virtual assistants like Alexa, Google Asst, Siri or any other virtual assistants or for that matter AI powered robots to human beings. They do have a physical body, a physical device that you see, powered by electric energy like a pranic body and all the content, programs and algorithms at the back end that supports this physical device are stored in the cloud and distributed like in our psychological body. These virtual assistants are illusory, they don’t exist like psychological self. They are supported by powerful Artificial Intelligence algorithms. They leverage collective learning on the platform. Outer world (Physical world) is manifestation of the inner world (Programs). As we see, as a part of evolution, today many of us started talking about ‘Oneness’ from which we all came and this creation has appeared as many and infinite. One can find an interesting analogy of our bodies and manifestation of technologies in the outer world on a chronological time scale as a part of our civilization. From physical world to Digital world and physical body to Digital world.
Annamaya Kosha – Physically connecting the continents by sea, air – One body
Humanity began in Africa and spread out to all continents. In isolation from each other, each group of humans developed a unique culture and language. Early human days, human beings were living as a caveman. Then he started connecting to other families, physically. Humanity was in search of different continents on this planet, then eventually people started connecting through sea routes, through air. Today, we can physically
travel to almost any part of the globe where it is inhabited by humans. Technological advances made human to travel faster and far distances by flights and ships. These flights and ships can be tracked sitting anywhere on Globe.
https://www.myshiptracking.com/
Pranamaya Kosha – Energy Grids – One Prana, Kundalini
During the initial period of industrial revolution, energies were produced at captive centers, close to where the need is, either through mechanical motion or direct current. With the discovery of alternating current, energy production centers could exist at different locations and transfer through electric grids. Today more or less all the countries and continents on this planet are connected to these grids. Similarly, communication technologies made humanity able to talk to each other without moving their physical bodies.
Karmamaya/Manomaya Kosha/Vignanamaya Kosha – Memory, Computer Storage, Data Centers-One Mind
Mind is stored in the form of bio-nano-information in distributed storage forms. Individual unconscious mind to One Mind and other
higher levels of Mind. One Mind s similar to the atmosphere, where all of us breathe-in and breath-out in to atmosphere. Thoughts from the thought sphere (One Mind) will flow through us, enter through Agneya chakra and broadcast through bindu. Similarly today in external world, all humanity knowledge is digitized and stored across distributed data centers.
Gnanamaya Kosha – Knowledge – One Being
The internet is one of the most significant technological developments of the present time. Its use has become central to the lives of millions of people, businesses and organizations, linking humanity together in ways unimaginable a few decades ago. The Internet is a relatively new model of universal consciousness in which knowledge, or information, is readily available to anyone, anywhere. All that is required is a computer and a connection and one has instant access to a unified body of knowledge.
Anandamaya Kosha : Connecting Antryamins – Oneness
Today each computer can be connected to all other computers using the Internet. Similarly, today each individual human being Antaryamin can be invoked and get connected. The Internet is a part of the development of our global awareness, which is why its ability to make connections is so important. The way that the Internet has developed reflects the way the oneness can work exponentially, without being constructed by past patterns of development.
In reality, Nature is revealing the required technologies to humanity relevant to that particular time period. Today, humanity is slated to move into Oneness. Nature has already manifested the required technologies in the outside world to correlate and understand. Also we would be seeing un-imaginable technological advances in our life time that can enable us make enlightenment possible either by surgery or injection or simply a pill and enable us true enlightened way of living.