Five Layers of the body

The first outermost layer is the Food Layer. The food layer or the gross body is created from food. We are born as small little infants. What makes us the grownups or adults that we are? It is the food that we eat that becomes this physical body.

The second layer below the Food Layer is the Vital Air Layer or Life Force Layer. The Vital Air Layer is subtler than the Food Layer. It is a layer that controls the five functions of respiration, excretion, circulation, digestion and reverse action. Along with the organs of action, these form the second layer.

The third layer is the Mind Layer. The Layer of the mind along with five organs of perception - the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the skin form the third layer below the Food and Vital /air layers.

The fourth layer is the Intellectual Layer. The Intellectual layers controls the other three layers. It constitutes the intellect and five organs of perception the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the skin which are common to both the mind and intellectual layers.

The three layers, Vital Air or Life Force, the Mind, and the Intellectual layers together form the subtle body, while the Food Layer is the gross body.

The Bliss Layer is the fifth or the innermost layer of the body, just outside an immediately covering the Soul.

The five layers together conceal the true self, the Soul, or the Atman.

Penetrating beyond the five layers

People are born and they die thinking they are different from the Soul, Least do they realize that they are not the body but rather the Soul.

I am the Soul, the self. The three bodies and the five layers are not the true self, the Soul that I actually am.

It may appear that the Soul is acting and moving but this is an illusion, just like the moon appears to be running when the clouds move in the sky or just like the trees and the  houses appear to be moving while travelling in a train, when in reality it is actually the train that is moving. When the mind is agitated, the Soul or true self seems to be agitated. But in reality, the Soul is silent and calm.

Due to ignorance and not using the intellect to discriminate, we confuse ourselves and super impose the qualities of the body, mind, and intellect on the Soul. In reality, we are not the body, mind, and intellect, but we are the Soul. But the moment we say - “ I enjoy… I do…” it is the ego that expresses, forgetting its true identity.  As long as the mind is functioning, we have desires  and we experience pleasure and pain. In deep sleep, when the mind ceases to exist, all these disappear.

The mind is inert matter. It is the Soul that illuminates the mind and the body through its consciousness. Without the Soul, there would be no power to the mind, to the intellect, and to the body. The Soul does nothing else, except for illuminating or energizing the body.

Author

Narain Balchandani.