1. Anna mayakosha is 'the food body' ,ie 'what's made up of food'. This is the physical body and many think that this is who they are but this is definitely not who we are.
2. Prana mayakosha is the body of 'sensory organs'. This is the power of the senses, the I is who is listening, seeing, performing physiological functions. This is not who we are either.
3. Mano mayakosha is 'the mind body', receiving impressions and reacting. This could be pain responses, and knee-jerk emotional responses, anger, hurt, sadness etc. We are also not our thoughts and feelings.
4. Vigyan mayakosha /Buddhi mayakosha is 'intellect' 'cognition', finding what is right and wrong, the discriminating director of the mind. Though closer than Manomayakosha, in that it can see the cause of emotional reactions and choose a more measured response, this is not who we are.
5. Ananda mayakosha is the body 'beyond intellect' where the blissful personality arises. Even this is not who we are!
So who are we really?
''I am existence,'' says Sankacarya. ''I am Shiva – the life force – and permanent Brahm consciousness.''
When Sankacarya's students asked him who he was, when he was nearing death, he answered like this:
When dying who am I?
I am not the mind, nor intelligence nor ego
nor am I the organs of hearing, nor that of tasting, smelling and seeing.
Nor am I the sky, nor the earth, nor fire, nor the air
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness. I am Shiva itself.
Nor am I the vital breath, nor the five vital airs
nor am I the seven tissues of the body, nor even the five layers.
Nor am I the organ of speech, nor the organs for holding, movement and excretion
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness. I am Shiva itself.
Nor do I have hatred, nor attachment, nor greed, nor infatuation
nor do I have passion, nor feelings of envy and jealousy.
I am not within the bounds of virtue, wealth, desire and liberation
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness. I am Shiva itself.
Nor am I bound by merits, nor by sins, nor by worldly joys,
nor by pleasures, nor by sorrows, nor by mantras, nor by sacred places.
Nor am I bound by sacred books, nor scriptures, nor by praying and sacrifices.
I am not the enjoyment, nor an object to be enjoyed nor the one who enjoys.
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness. I am Shiva itself.
Nor am I bound by death and fear of it, nor do I have death because I was not born,
nor by the rules of caste, race and its distinctions, nor do I have father and mother,
nor do I have birth, nor do I have relations nor friends,
nor do I have a spiritual guru nor disciples.
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness. I am Shiva itself.
I am without any variation and without any form. I am present everywhere as the underlying sub-stratum of everything and behind all sense organs and mind. I do not get attached to anything, nor do I get free from anything because I am ever the ever pure blissful consciousness. I am Shiva itself.
Sankacarya was walking all over India when he met a prominent scholar of Mimansa, a 60 year-old married man, Mandanmishra, who claimed only Mimansa and the carrying out of rituals could offer liberation. Sankacarya, as a 25 year old monk, cleverly went to beg for a debate (knowing that the Mimansa householder must not refuse to give to who begs). They agreed that Mandanmishra's very intelligent wife, Sharda, would be the judge.
After 21 days of debate, in the final stages, Mandanmishra concluded: ''It is actions which give you liberation.'' Sankacarya agreed that actions could bring liberation but pointed out that they may also be a trap. He used this example: like a parrot inside a cage who sings for its lord, receives food, feels happy, thinks it's very good and then forgets to fly even when the cage door opens, humans can get so involved in the entanglement of rituals, they forget about the search for freedom. ''If you have wings, why don't you fly now?'' said Sankacarya. Why wait to the age of seventy or eighty and risk forgetting that life is about finding liberation? While Karma is not a waste, it is merely an entrance door, not the goal. We must fly out of the cage to find a freedom more blissful than anything in this world. Finally convinced, Mandanmishra asked to become a disciple and so did his wife Sharda.
Sancacarya did not oppose Mimansa or say that its practice was wrong though. The beauty of his personality was to encourage others ''you're doing fine''. Mimansa is not bad, it's just that Vedanta goes beyond Mimansa. Once, walking with his students, he saw a grammar teacher who was stressed out and angry, teaching unruly children and he wrote another poem:
'Phuj Govindam (worship god) worship Govinda oh fool
The rules of grammar will not save you from the jaws of death!'
Then he saw other stressed people and wrote the following:
'Oh fool give up your thirst to amass wealth!
Be content with what comes from your actions already performed.
That is the way to freedom.'
Then he saw men fighting over prostitutes:
''Many people get drowned in delusion,
going wild with passion and lust by seeing a woman's naval and breast.
Oh fool, see clearly, this is just another modification of muscle and fat!
Fail not to remember this again and again in your mind; this is the way to freedom.
The life of a person is as uncertain as a raindrop trembling on a lotus leaf.
Know that this whole world will always remain prey to disease, ego and grief.
So long as a man is fit and able to support his family, see what affection all those around him show! But when his body totters in old age, it becomes hard work for others even to have a word with him.
When a man is alive and in good health, his nearest and dearest show so much love and affection! But when the soul departs from his body, even his wife runs away, afraid of the corpse.
Childhood is lost in playfulness, youth in attachment to the opposite sex, career and money. Old age passes by thinking over past actions and this is the big surprise - that even at this stage a person thinks that something good will happen!
Who is your wife? Who is your son? How strange is this Samsara! Who are you? Where have you come from? Where will you go? Please ponder over these questions and truths: you will find freedom!
Do not be arrogant because of wealth, friends, beauty and youth, each one of these are destroyed within a minute by time. Free yourself from this illusion of Maya, and see the timeless truth.
Day and night, dusk and dawn, winter and sping, come and go, time plays and life passes away.
But I have a big surprise: the storm of desire never leaves!
When you lose your teeth, your mouth will look like an elephant's mouth.
The stick you hold aloft so proudly will shake in your hand.
Behold the man who sits warming himself at the fire ceremony.
At night he curls up by the fire, eating from the beggar's bowl.
He is a puppet in the hands of passion still!
Born again, dead again, to stay nine months again in the mother's womb...
It is indeed boundless suffering to cross this Samsara world
Oh Brahm! Make me free of all this!
Wealth is not welfare, there is no joy in it.
A rich man fears even his own son.
This is the way of wealth everywhere.''
I gratefully acknowledge this translation from the Sanskrit by Dr Arun Sharma of Ayuskama, Dharamshala
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