About Instructor T. Saravanan (Vanan)
His physical activities began from as young as seven years old when he started riding his dad's bicycle in the late sixties. He was excelling in soccer but stopped playing when he had to use glasses to improve his vision at the age of 14. In track and field, without much practice, he clocked 52 seconds in the 400 meters sprint category. After watching Bruce Lee beat up the bad guys in Fists of Fury, he decided to take up martial arts as well. When John Travolta executed his sleek moves in Saturday Night Fever in the late seventies, he started to practice dancing for 2 hours every day for many years. After watching Arnold Schwarzenegger flexing his muscles in Terminator and noticing that his weight was far below the optimum level, he alternated his dancing sessions with weight-training in the late eighties.
In September 2002, he invited Sankara Saranam (authour of the best-seller books, God Without Religion and Science of Pranayama from the United States to Kuala Lumpur for a brief yoga training and speaking tour. From Sankara Saranam, he learnt and started to practice Kriya/Raja Yoga. In 2008, he added to his yoga knowledge by attending Sivananda yoga classes.
Panchakosha are discussed in the brahmanadavali chapter of Taithiriya Upanishad which is a part of Taittiriya samhita of the Krishna yajurveda. It gives detailed description of the divisions of human personality. Each human body has a dimension and a layer in vedanad they are known as ‘koshas’. They are five in numbers.
In 2010, he then started teaching yoga for the Raintree Club members in Kuala Lumpur.Fascinated by the asana sequences and the dynamic nature of Ashtanga yoga, in 2012, he got hooked to the practice and committed 2 hours daily. His commitment in Ashtanga intensified when he attended Madam Saraswathi Jois’ Ashtanga classes in 2014 in Kuala Lumpur.
You’re welcome to return to this meditation any time you feel the need to release tension, go to a place of silence, and stop your mind from chattering. And the more you do meditation practices like this, the more you’ll notice that the peace and inner quietness stays with you longer and longer even in the middle of stressful life situations. PANCHAMAYAKOSHA – THE FIVE LEVELS OF BEING Yoga philosophy describes the body as composed of 5 sheaths, bodies or levels of being. These are the five koshas (pancha = 5, kosha = sheath). The word maya can also mean sheath or veil. Guided Meditation. Panchamaya Koshas: A Guided Meditation. Class Description. Relax the body, connect to the breath, observe the mind and access the heart. As you become a neutral observer, you will move systematically through the layers (koshas) of your being and sense the relationship and interaction between them. He said Guruji Ravishankar has taught a powerful meditation called Pancha Kosha meditation which we are all going to learn now. I am happy I will learn one more meditation and add it to my kitty. I am impatient what is this meditation with such a beautiful name. Teacher explains there are five sheaths of our being.
In June 2018, he attended the VYASA Yoga Therapy course in Kuala Lumpur for 12 months and participated in a 10 day student visit programme to VYASA Bangalore.In his classes, he emphasizes the importance of the asana sequence, breath (vinyasa), posture alignment, the therapeutic effect on the mind and body, dhristi (focus point), bandhas, prana, nadis (astral veins) and laughter.Students are 'cautioned' when practicing yoga with Vanan as his passion and enthusiasm for yoga is highly contagious.
Yoga explains the nature of human beings in terms of energy at different levels if subtlety. These 5 levels are called the Pancha Koshas.
These 5 levels / bodies are all part of the same continuous energy field. Light sources emit light at different frequencies and we see these different frequencies as different colours. In the same way, the koshas are all part of the same energy field, but at different vibrational levels. They are the same, they are a whole, but they are also distinct.
The concept of the Koshas may sound abstract and esoteric, but it is important to remember that this concept describes aspects of our being and that we CAN experience them. In our Yoga practice, and in meditation in particular, we quieten the mind and thereby eliminate things that distract us from knowing ourselves better.
It can be a simple thing to understand and experience the Koshas, we just need to be quiet and pay attention!
Anna-maya Kosha
Prana-maya Kosha
Mana-maya Kosha
Vigyana-maya Kosha
Ananda-maya Kosha
Anna-maya Kosha : The physical body
‘Anna’ means food, so this is literally the ‘food body’. This is energy in its most obvious, solid state. The Anna-maya kosha can be maintained by a healthy lifestyle and hatha yoga practice.
Prana-maya Kosha : The energy body
The pranic body is more subtle than the physical body which it pervades and supports. It is prana which sustains life. Breathing has a direct influence on the Prana-maya kosha. Pranayama (yogic breathing) improves the health & functioning of the energy body and makes us more sensitive to it.
Mana-maya Kosha : The mind / mental body
This is the level of the ‘individual mind’. Our attitudes, emotions, personality, desire, nature, strengths & weaknesses, patterns of thought are all aspects of Mana-maya Kosha. This is sometimes called chattering mind
Through Meditation and other practices we can bring balance and equilibrium to the mind.
An agitated mind gets in the way of our understanding of ourselves. By witnessing and observing the activity of the mind we learn to understand it better; gradually the mind becomes more balanced, lucid and clear.
Vigyana-maya Kosha : The intuitive / higher mental body
This is a more subtle, ‘higher’ aspect of the mind which opens up insight and understanding. Witnessing, or observing our thoughts and feelings, our experiences is part of this Kosha.
Vigyana-maya Kosha is beyond the limitations of our personality and leads to an awareness of our true, underlying nature.
At this level we are united. The harmony and clarity we all experience when we connect with a higher level of mind is common to us all.
Ananda-maya Kosha : The blissful body
This is the purity and perfection at the centre of our being. We can access Ananda-maya Kosha in meditation and thereby catch a glimpse of the joy and bliss of pure Awareness.
“Knowing and experiencing Anandamaya Kosha gives meaning to our life and to existence”
(Swami Nishchalananda).
Pancha Maya Kosha Model
from General, posted June 2020
Panchakosha
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