What is a human?
In trying to understand who I am, I liked this concept from reading yoga and Hindu literature and I will share my understanding of it.
A human being is a composite.
The outer layer that we see is the physical body or the Annamaya Kosha, made up of the food we eat. Susceptible to death and decay and bound by physical laws.
The next is the layer of energy which enlivens the physical sheath, the energy is various frequencies of electromagnetic energy, heat, light, and the breath. The Pranayama Kosha, which coexists with the Annamaya Kosha.
The next layer is the layer formed by the functioning of our brain which forms our ego, instincts, emotions, thoughts, thinking, logic, imagination and learning. The Manomaya Kosha, this also changes and is dependent on the Annamaya Kosha and Pranamyama Kosha.
The next layer is the Jananamaya Kosha. This is the layer of intuition, premonition, revelation and wisdom, this is the unchanging truth.
The next layer is the Karma Kosha- this is the layer formed by the residue of our Karma, good and bad. This is the sum of all our actions we perform with the above four layers, this layer is dependent on the choices we make, we create this layer. This layer follows with the next two layers after our death.
The next layer is a layer of bliss or the Anandamaya Kosha. This is the primal covering of our Self untainted by any residue of our actions. This is what remains when our karma account is zero when we have paid all the bad karma debts, have reaped all the benefits of our good karma and have stopped collecting any further karma by practicing dharma, good thoughts, good words and good deeds, only and relinquishing the results of our actions to God.
Beyond these layers is our self which is a drop in the “ocean of self” and once it merges with the ocean it becomes the ocean.
In our essence we are the self, we are all Divine. The limitations in our human form are due to the limitations of our Koshas.
Our goals in meditation are to connect with this enshrined self and at death is to merge with God. Meditation gives us a glimpse of our enshrined self.
More about my yoga practice
My first encounter with Yoga was in 1976 when I was studying at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai. It was an introduction to yoga meditation and yoga sleep. I spent several months studying at IIT before transferring to study medicine elsewhere. The meditation that I learned helped me through the years of my education and then immigration to USA and completing residency and fellowship to be an oncologist. There was a long period when I did not practice yoga. At 45 years of age I noticed changes in my gait and posture and started a practice of Hatha Yoga with significant improvement. At about the same time I started having increasing fatigue and depression. To counter the fatigue I exercised and pursued yoga. The depression was associated with obsessive compulsive behavior and every day was a struggle. Also associated with the fatigue were severe outbreaks of canker sores in the mouth. I tried multiple remedies with no benefit. To understand the functioning of my mind I read books from multiple disciplines. Finally I got relief after many years when serendipitously I gave up caffeine in all forms.
Summary of the meditation
We sit in meditation with our physical body, or Annamaya Kosha. We breathe slowly, deeply and calmly to invigorate our Pranamaya Kosha that gets our mind (manomaya), emotions, logic, thoughts, etc. under control. All together awakens our innate intelligence and wisdom- Jananamaya Kosha and we then make right choices and are able to work on our Karm Kosha which has been following us all our lives and our multiple lives. Finally we pierce the shield of bliss or the Anandamaya Kosha and experience our divine self.]