50 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 is providing the vijñānamaya with information necessary for decision-making and suggestion for actions presented to ahaṁkāra. The vāsanās could be taken as criteria on the basis of which the ānandamaya evaluates its anandic quality. Interestingly the Upanishad assigns the perception of physical pain to manomaya kōśa, but it does not touch upon non-physical pain, which should belong under the jurisdiction of ānandamaya (Sastri 1903, 477). The Taittirīya Upaniṣad (quoted in Sastri 1903, 487) further gives the following hints: “He, verily, this one, is quite of man’s shape. After his human shape, this one is of man’s shape. Of him, love itself is the head, joy is the right wing, delight is the left wing, bliss is the self, Brahman is the tail, the support [note: of the ānandamaya].” “Thereof, – of the former, – this one, verily, is the Self embodied. Thereof, – of the former, – i.e., of the Vijnanamaya, this one, surely, namely, – the Anandamaya, – is the embodied Self, i.e., the Self dwelling in the Vijnanamaya body… This very Anandamaya is the master of the Vijnanamaya, – the latter being the body of the former.” (Quoted in Sastri 1903, 496). As shown in Tripura Rahasya “the intellectual sheath is the veil drawn over Pure Intelligence; it is inert by itself. One-pointedness is abiding as the Self. Birth is the false identification of the Self with the body”; the vijñānamaya kōśa, just like other kōśa, are “inert” (Sa. jaḍa) (Ramananda 1994, 223). This is found also in the Guru Vachaka Kovai (Muruganar 2004), which can be considered as one of the modern-day Upaniṣads, it is stated there that “Ānandamaya is said to be a sheath [note: kōśa] because of the great desire towards the waking state [note: jāgrat] of the one identifying with the vijñānamaya kōśa. But when the strong ego identifying with vijñānamaya is destroyed, the ānandamaya that survives will lose the nature of a sheath [note: kōśa] and remain as the supreme Bliss” (Muruganar 2004, 461). The Uḷḷadu Nārpadu (Maharshi 1998, verse 12, quoted in James 2022) shows that “the body is a form of five sheaths. Therefore, all five are included in the term ‘body’. Without a body, is there a world? Leaving the body, is there anyone who has seen a world? Say.” Verse 24 (quoted in James 2022) declares that “[t]he jaḍa body [consisting of five sheaths] does not say ‘I’; Sat–Cit does not rise; in between one thing, ‘I’, rises as the extent of the body. This [the spurious adjunct-conflated awareness that rises as ‘I am this body’] is cit-jaḍa-granthi, bondage, jīva, subtle body, ego, this saṁsāra and mind. Know.” Further, it declares that “[i]f ahaṁkāra comes into existence, everything comes into existence; if ahaṁkāra does not exist, everything does not exist. Ahaṃkāra itself is everything. Therefore, know that investigating what this is alone is giving up everything” (Maharshi 1998, verse 12, quoted in James 2022). Thus, it can be deduced that the kōśas are only service units to the ahaṁkāra without empowerments for independent decision-making. The vāsanās (Sa. “past impressions”) cause identification with the body and thus also with the prāṇamaya kōśa and it is permeating the annamaya (or annarasamaya) sheath. It is perceivable through the information “I breathe”. Samāna vāyu is the center of the prāṇamaya kōśa (Sastri 1903, 416). Michael James (2023, 7) states, that body, life, mind, intellect and will (the five kōśas) are separate from the “I am”. He explains the first five words of verse 22 of Upadesa Sarah (James 2022) as: உடல் (Ta. uḍal) and विग् रह (Sa. vigraha) mean the physical body, the ‘sheath composed of food’ (annamaya kōśa); உயிர் (Ta. uyir) and प् राण (Sa. prāṇa) mean life, the ‘sheath composed of prāṇa’ (Sa. prāṇamaya kōśa), namely the breath and other physiological processes that animate the body; ப�ொறி (Ta. poṟi) and इन् द् रिय (Sa. indriya) in this context mean mind in the sense of its grosser functions, the ‘sheath composed of mind’ (Sa. manōmaya kōśa); உள் ளம் (Ta. uḷḷam) and धी (Sa. dhī) mean the intellect (buddhi), the ‘sheath composed of discernment’ [note: understanding or intelligence] (vijñānamaya kōśa); and இருள் (Ta. iruḷ) and तमः (Sa. tamaḥ) mean darkness, which in this context refers to the will (Sa. cittam) and simultaneously to the ‘sheath composed of happiness’ (Sa. ānandamaya kōśa), which is called ‘darkness’ because it consists of the dense, dark fog of inclinations or desires to seek happiness in things other than oneself (Sa. viṣayavāsanās) [4]. The full verse runs as: “Body, mind, life, intellect, and darkness are not I, the one existence or reality (Sa. ēka sat) because that [note: the body consisting of these five sheaths] is non-aware (Sa. jaḍa) and non-existent (Sa. asat).” (James 2022). Ānandamaya kōśa – as we can see – in this tradition is conceived as “darkness of ignorance or darkness of desire” (James 2022). It can be so if we consider that usually ānandamaya kōśa assesses and enables the experience of the absence of presence of joy generated by sense objects and because attachments to feelings that come from sense objects originates in avidyā. Nevertheless, living beings cannot well exist without at least a perception of samtoşa (Sa. “satisfaction”) – basic mental comfort. When in this context the ānandamaya kōśa is described as “darkness” (Ta. iruḷ; Sa. tamaḥ), we have to consider what is asserted by Michael James, that it is necessary to distinguish this darkness from the primal darkness of avidyā, which is the darkness of false perception of the self, which is the dark-
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