Ananda loka / Plane of bliss

Consciousness is truth, being, and bliss — satchitananda. Ananda is the highest truth, the essence of being.

In the process of manifestation the Self is slowly covered by five sheaths. The first and most subtle sheath is anandmayee kosh, the sheath of pure being, pure feelings of pure consciousness. This is the sheath of bliss (ananda). At the center is Cosmic Consciousness. During the period of manifestation this acts as the individual consciousness.

The second is the level of ego and intellect. This sheath is called vigyanmayee kosh. Vigyan is a combination of vi and gyan. Vi means beyond, gyana knowledge, mayee engrossed, and kosh sheath. This sheath, which deals with the knowledge of the beyond, is ego (which perceives itself as a separate reality) and the intellect (the evaluator).

The third is the sheath of the mind, the manomayee kosh (manas = mind). Mind works with the help of five sensory organs: the ear, the skin, the eye, the tongue, and the nose. From here comes all perception of the phenomenal world, the world of desires.

The fourth is pranmayee kosh, the sheath of prana, the vital life-force, the energy that operates through the five work organs and systems inside the body, including the blood vascular system, the respiratory system, and the nervous system, through which karmas are performed.

The fifth and most gross sheath is the annamayee kosha. Anna means the grain or food from which muscles, skin, teeth, blood cells, and semen are composed — the phenomenal person.

In the evolution of the inner self this process is reversed. The player goes through the annamayee kosh to the pranmayee, and crossing the four sheaths establishes himself finally in the sheath of bliss, the anandmayee kosh. Ananda is the chief characteristic of consciousness. It differs from pleasure, happiness, joy, and delight. These others can be explained, observed, and evaluated. They are relative states, which intellect can evaluate and categorize. Buddbhi leads to gyana, the arrow that leads to the plane of bliss. Ananda is the primordial feeling of which all others are but manifestations. It underlies feeling and always exists at the heart of the player’s being. But ananda can only be experienced directly, not observed in others. A deaf-mute cannot communicate the taste of a piece of candy in words. Only movements, gestures, and expressions can be employed. Ananda cannot be described or expressed; it can only be experienced.

In uranta-loka the feeling-self ended. All feelings became one when the world of sense-objects became one, since feelings are based on sensory perceptions. And prakriti-loka gave the player the knowledge that all sense-objects are but expressions of the one phenomenon.

Here but one feeling remains, the feeling of bliss. The experience of bliss is difficult until one achieves wisdom and becomes realized. The only alternative is devoting full attention to dharma while making the gradual journey up through the planes, avoiding all the snakes.