Koshas And Boundaries

• We need to understand the boundaries of all the koshas, the layers:

• The boundary of the annamaya kosha is your skin. Where your skin ends, the annamaya kosha ends.

• Second, the pranamaya kosha, is the distance upto which you can smell. If you can smell up to a certain distance of say ten feet or fifteen feet, that is your pranamaya kosha. Sometimes, it can even be up to thirty to forty feet, but not more than 100 feet. 100 feet will be the maximum. That is why people who have a strong sense of smell will be very sharp and intelligent. This layer is directly associated with intelligence. Such people will be very sharp in their decision making and clarity. But somehow, civilization has destroyed the sense of smell.

• The third layer, the manomaya kosha, is the mental layer. The boundary of the mental layer includes all the subjects which you can understand logically and which you are able to reproduce. That is the boundary of your manomaya kosha. If you are a doctor, all medical subjects come inside your manomaya kosha. Whatever you can understand logically and reproduce, whatever you are able to express, comes in the boundary of your manomaya kosha. Your feelings of love, hatred, depression, joy, jealousy or compassion are played out on this level. Ego and its natural characteristics and needs, are also manifested in the manomaya kosha. The manomaya kosha corresponds to your nervous system.

• The fourth or the vignanamaya kosha is whatever you can visualize or imagine. The people who live in visualization and imagination - like artists, poets, singers and painters live in this layer. They live a more satisfied, happy and deep life, when compared to the logicians. Lawyers and accountants may have money, but not joy or fulfillment.

A large firm which was doing scientific research, decided that it would experiment its medicines on lawyers, instead of rats. They gave three reasons for it. One: there are more number of lawyers than rats. Second: reducing the number of lawyers does more good to the country than reducing the number of rats. Third: there are some things that rats won't do for the sake of money!