Pancha Kosha (The Five Sheaths)

Pañca Kośa means "five sheaths" — the five nested layers, from gross to subtle, that veil the innermost Self (Ātman). They are Annamaya (the food or physical body), Prāṇamaya (the vital-energy body of breath), Manomaya (the mind-emotion body), Vijñānamaya (the body of wisdom and discernment), and Ānandamaya (the bliss body nearest to the Self).

The model maps the human being as a series of ever-subtler envelopes, like lamps within lamps, each pervading the one before. Yoga is understood as a journey inward through these layers — refining body, breath, mind, and intellect until awareness rests in the bliss-sheath and, beyond it, in the Self that all five clothe. — Taittirīya Upaniṣad.

Āsana refines the Annamaya kośa; Prāṇāyāma the Prāṇamaya; meditation and Pratyāhāra the Manomaya and Vijñānamaya. Instructors use the map to show that practice touches every layer of being, not the body alone. It offers a framework for understanding where a student is "working" on any given day.