Namaste and thank you for joining me.
Today we arrive at the final layer of the 5 Koshas,
One of Yoga's most beautiful explorations of who we truly are.
As we journey through the body,
Breath,
Mind and wisdom.
Each layer has brought us a little closer to the quiet essence that lies beneath them all.
In this talk,
We'll explore the Anandamaya Kosha,
The Bliss Sheet.
This isn't a state of constant excitement or pleasure.
But a deep peaceful contentment that is already present beneath the changing experiences of everyday life.
Together we'll reflect on how reconnecting with this inner stillness can transform the way we meet the world.
Take a slow,
Gentle breath.
Allow yourself to settle fully into the present moment.
And let's begin our journey together.
There's a story in the Indian tradition about a musk deer that's wandering to the forest.
One day it catches the most beautiful scent it has ever known.
Sweet.
Intoxicating Divine.
It spends its life searching for the source of that scent.
It sniffs flowers,
It goes chasing the wind,
It climbs mountains and finally exhausted,
The deer collapses.
And as the deer does,
It discovers the truth.
The fragrance was coming from the gland beneath its own navel.
The bliss that it was seeking was always within it.
And that's the story of Anandamaya Kosha,
The Bliss Sheet.
The innermost layer of our being.
Where joy is not something that we pursue.
But joy is something that we are.
The word Ananda,
It means Joy,
Oh it means bliss.
It's not that fleeting happiness that comes and goes.
But this is a quiet,
A steady joy that exists beneath all experiences.
And this kosha,
This layer is the subtlest of all the five layers.
And it comes just below,
Just beneath or beyond the sheath of wisdom.
It is not emotional pleasure,
It is not excitement,
It is not comfort.
But you can think of it as that still radiance that arises when we are fully present,
When we are free from striving,
When we are resting in the Self.
In the lives that we live nowadays,
In our modern lives.
We often mistake happiness for either accomplishment or for comfort or for control.
We say things like,
I'll be happy when.
.
.
When I finish this task,
When I find the right partner,
When I reach so and so amount in my bank account,
When life finally slows down,
When I retire.
But that kind of joy fades as quickly as the conditions that create that joy.
Anandamaya Kosha It reminds us that true contentment It doesn't depend on circumstance.
True contentment is that peace that we feel after a good cry.
It is that quiet fullness after a deep exhale.
The warmth of sitting in the sunlight without needing to do a thing.
Anandamaya kosha is that moment where you forget yourself.
And in that forgetting,
You become whole.
The yogic sages,
They say that there are three levels of happiness.
We have pleasure,
Which is karma,
Pleasure.
It is short-lived,
It is sensory and it depends on conditions.
Then we have Satisfaction,
Sukha.
Satisfaction is a bit deeper than pleasure.
It comes from meaningful connection on purpose.
Purposeful meaningful connections.
And then we have bliss which is Ananda.
And this joy is unconditional.
It comes from within and It means nothing outside of itself.
The first two,
Pleasure and satisfaction,
These are found in the outer koshas,
In the physical kosha or in the mental kosha.
The third,
Which is Ananda,
It shines only when we touch that deepest layer of our being.
Some examples.
You finished a long day.
And you just sit quietly.
You watch the sunset.
Maybe a cup of tea in your hand.
And you're feeling peace without needing anything to change.
And that's Anandamaya Gosha.
Or when you're absorbed in music or you're absorbed in your art and you lose all sense of time.
That is also Anandamaya Kosha.
Or when you hold a loved one.
And you feel no separation,
You just feel presence.
That too is Anandamaya Kosha.
Even deep sleep.
Pure deep sleep.
It gives us that glimpse.
We awaken rested.
Because for the while all the outer layers have dissolved.
And we have rested in bliss without even knowing it.
So how do we access this bliss sheath?
How do we reach Anandamaya Kosha?
Firstly,
There's deep meditation and stillness.
When those waves of thoughts settle,
Bliss naturally arises.
We don't create joy.
We simply uncover that by resting in awareness.
Secondly,
There's gratitude and presence.
Every act of gratitude,
Every act of gratitude that's truly felt.
It opens the heart to that bliss within.
Joy is always in the now.
It is never in the next moment.
Thirdly there is selfless action,
Karma Yoga.
When we serve without expectation,
Our ego drops.
And that natural joy of giving it shines through us.
And finally,
Love and devotion.
Bhakti.
Bhakti Yoga.
The Yoga of Love and Devotion.
Because love dissolves the sense of separation.
And bliss is love without an object.
Love that simply is.
So you can imagine Sunlight filtering through layers of clouds.
Each Kosha is one layer.
The body,
The energy,
The mind,
The wisdom.
And when the clouds thin.
The sunlight is revealed.
That light was never gone.
And that light is your Anandamaya Kosha.
It's always shining and it's waiting for your awareness to see it.
So something that You could try today.
Or something that you could try on your journey.
Sit quietly for one minute.
Every day,
Make that time to sit quietly for one minute.
Feel your breath.
Without controlling it.
Let the body soften.
Let the mind rest.
And Ask nothing from that moment.
And then feel what remains.
And that subtle,
That effortless ease.
That's bliss.
So Anandamaya Kosha,
It is not something that We need to attain.
Or it's not something that we need to try to achieve.
But rather it is something to the member.
Beneath every feel,
Every thought,
Every breath.
There is peace.
And when we peel away the layers of doing and knowing.
When we peel away the layers of doing and knowing,
What remains is being.
And that being itself is joy.
So the next time you feel lost,
The next time you feel restless.
Remember that musk,
Dear.
That must hear and remember the truth that it finally found.
The fragrance of bliss was within all along.
As we come to the end of this reflection,
Take a moment to notice what has resonated with you today.
These teachings are not simply ideas to understand.
They are invitations to experience yourself more deeply.
If you're continuing with the accompanying Yoga Nidra practice,
You'll now have the opportunity to move beyond understanding and into direct experience.
Thank you for sharing this time with me.
Until we meet again.
May you move to life with greater awareness,
Compassion and peace.
Namaste.
