9 ENVELOPES OF THE 'SELF': THE FIVE VĀYUS OR VITAL FUNCTIONS
Purusha or Ātmā, manifesting itself as Jīvātmā in the living form of the individual being, is regarded, according to the Vedānta, as clothing itself in a series of 'envelopes' (koshas) or successive vehicles, representing so many phases of its manifestation; it would be altogether wrong, however, to compare these envelopes to 'bodies', since it is the last phase only that belongs to the corporeal order. It is important to note, moreover, that Ātmā cannot, strictly speaking, be said to be actually contained within such envelopes, since, by its very nature, it is not susceptible of any limitation and is in no way conditioned by any state of manifestation whatsoever. [1]
The first envelope (ānandamaya-kosha, the suffix maya signifying 'made of' or 'consisting of' whatever is denoted by the word to which it is joined) is none other than the totality of the possibilities of manifestation which Ātmā comprises within itself, in its 'permanent actuality' in the principial and undifferentiated state. It is called 'made of Beatitude' (Ānanda), because the 'Self,' in this primordial state, enjoys the plenitude of its own being, and it is in no way really distinct from the 'Self'; it is superior to conditioned existence, which presupposes it, and it is situated at the level of pure
Being; that is why it is regarded as characteristic of Ishvara. [2] Here, therefore, we are in the formless order; it is only when this envelope is viewed in relation to formal manifestation, and insofar as the principle of the latter is contained in it, that it can be said to represent principial or causal form (kārana-sharīra), that by which form will be manifested and actualized in the succeeding stages.
The second envelope (vijñānamaya-kosha) is formed by the directly reflected Light (in the intelligible sense) of integral and universal Knowledge (Jñāna, the particle vi implying the distinctive mode); [3] it is composed of five 'elementary essences' (tanmätras), 'conceivable' but not 'perceptible', in their subtle state; and it arises out of the conjunction of the higher intellect (Buddhi) with the principial faculties of perception proceeding respectively from the five tanmätras, and the external development of which constitutes the five senses of the corporeal individuality. [4] The third envelope (manomaya-kosha), in which the constituents of the preceding envelope are linked up with the inward sense (manas), especially brings into play the mental consciousness [5] or thinking faculty; this, as we have previously explained, belongs exclusively to the individual and formal order, and its development arises from the radiation,
in reflective mode, of the higher intellect within a determinate individual state, which is in this case the human state. The fourth envelope (prānamaya-kosha) comprises the faculties which proceed from the 'vital breath' (prāna), that is to say the five vāyus (modalities of this prāna), as well as the faculties of action and sensation (these last already existing principially in the two preceding envelopes as purely 'conceptive' faculties, at which stage, indeed, there could be no question of any sort of action, any more than of any external perception). The combination of these last envelopes (vijñānamaya, manomaya, and prānamaya) constitutes the subtle form (sükshma-sharīra or linga-sharīra), as opposed to the gross or corporeal form (sthūla-sharīra); thus we meet again here with the distinction between the two modes of formal manifestation which we have referred to on several previous occasions.
The five vital functions or actions are called vāyus, although they are not strictly speaking air or wind (which is the general meaning of the word vāyu or vāta, derived from the root vā, 'to go', 'to move', and usually denoting the element air, one of the characteristic properties of which is mobility), [6] since they belong to the subtle and not to the corporeal state; as we have said above, they are modalities of the 'vital breath' (prāna, or more generally ana) [7] considered chiefly in relation to respiration. They are: (i) aspiration, that is, respiration regarded as ascending in its initial phase (prāna in the strictest sense of this word), and attracting the still unindividualized elements of the cosmic environment, causing them to participate, by assimilation, in the individual consciousness; (ii) inspiration, considered as descending in a succeeding phase (apāna), whereby these elements penetrate into the individuality; (iii) a phase intermediary between the two preceding ones (vyāna), consisting, on the one hand, of all the reciprocal actions and reactions which are produced upon the contact of the individual with the surrounding elements, and, on
the other hand, of the various resultant vital movements, of which the circulation of the blood is the corresponding movement in the bodily organism; (iv) expiration (udāna), which projects the breath, while transforming it, beyond the limits of the restricted individuality (that is, the individuality reduced simply to those modalities which are commonly developed in all men) into the sphere of the possibilities of the extended individuality, viewed in its integrality; [8] and (v) digestion, or inner substantial assimilation (samāna), by which the elements absorbed become an integral part of the individuality. [9] It is clearly stated that all this is not purely a matter of the operation of one or of several bodily organs; it is, in fact, easy to realize that it refers not merely to the analogically corresponding physiological functions, but rather to vital assimilation in the widest possible sense.
The corporeal or gross form (sthūla-sharīra) is the fifth and last envelope, the one which, for the human state, corresponds to the most external mode of manifestation; it is the alimentary envelope (annamaya-kosha), composed of the five sensible elements (bhūtas) out of which all bodies are constituted. It assimilates to itself the combined elements received in nutriment (anna, a word derived from the verbal root ad, 'to eat'), [10] secreting the finer parts, which remain in the organic circulation, and excreting or rejecting the coarser, excepting those however which are deposited in the bones. As a result of this assimilation the earthy substances become the flesh, the watery substances, the blood, and the igneous substances, the fat, the marrow, and the nervous system (phosphoric matter); for there are corporeal substances in which the nature of one element or another predominates, although they are all formed by the union of the five elements. [11]
Every organic being, dwelling in such a bodily form, possesses, in a more or less complete degree of development, the eleven individual faculties of which we have spoken above, and, as we have also seen, these faculties are manifested in the bodily organism by means of the eleven corresponding organs (avayavas, a name which is also applied in the subtle state, but only by analogy with the gross state). According to Shankarāchārya, [12] three classes of organic beings may be distinguished, according to their mode of reproduction: (i) the viviparous (jīvaja, or yonija, or again, jarāyuja), such as man and the other mammals; (ii) the oviparous (āndaja), such as birds, reptiles, fish, and insects; and (iii) the germiniparous (udbhijja), which includes both the lower animals and plants, the former mobile, being born chiefly in water, while the latter, which are immobile, are usually born in the earth: however, according to sundry passages in the Veda, nutriment (anna), that is to say vegetation (oshadhi), also proceeds from water, since it is rain (varsha) which fertilizes the earth. [13]