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Appendix 111 287
toward an increasingly more profound awareness of reality. Step by step he abandons one sheath after another until finally being able to dissolve all of them, to achieve the knowledge of his unity with the divine.
From outermost to most subtle, they are:
(1) Annamayakosa—the physical body made from food: the level of chemistry and physiology, the main focus of modern Western medicine.
(2) Pranamayakosa—the sphere of the five senses, the emotions and the subtle energy called prana (more about this shortly).
(3) Manomayakosa—the lower mental body composed of thought. This is called the causal sheath with its pattern of desires, motives, resolutions and wishes, which form the complex called mind. Thought is more subtle than emotions or prana, and with the development of our ability to manipulate ideas and gain greater mastery over the outside world—with greater potential for grati- fying our desires for fame, power and sex—we also inherit the in creased potential to become seduced and remain encased in this sheath.
This is the great challenge of modern man: to see beyond this stage of development and, with the help of the more penetrating insight afforded by the next stage, to transcend it. Later we will look at the nature of the struggle to escape the bondage of this level in order to reach those beyond.
(4) Vijnanamayakosa—the higher mental body composed of intel ligence, discrimination, intuition and the ability to choose according to higher ideals. This is the ruling aspect of the mind, charged with governing the mind’s wayward tendencies, its desiring after the momentary and transient. This is the aspect that can discern higher moral principles, that can see beyond the separate individual to the universal and contemplate the eternal.
(5) Anandamayakosa—the stage of constant bliss beyond feelings, thoughts and mind.
And beyond this 5th sheath is atma—described by Sai Baba as:
The unseen basis, the real self, one’s divinity—the soul, which is the reality within the five sheaths, the outer of which is the body. It is the spark of God within, one’s innermost reality. It is the sub-


































































































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