The Food Sheath (Annamaya-Kośa)
The outermost layer: the body 'made of food,' the shell most easily mistaken for the self.
The annamaya-kośa is the 'sheath made of food' — the physical body, so called because it is literally built and maintained by what we eat. It is the most obvious and outermost layer of the self, and the one people most readily mistake for who they are. Recognizing it as only the outer shell, not the core, is the first step in the inward analysis of the self.
Key passages(5)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
'For truly, my child, mind comes of earth, breath of water, speech of fire.' 'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son. 'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
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'Food (anna) is better than power. Therefore if a man abstain from food for ten days, though he live, he would be unable to see, hear, perceive, think, act, and understand. But when he obtains food, h
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Then breath (vital), by singing, obtained for himself eatable food. For whatever food is eaten, is eaten by breath alone, and in it breath rests . The Devas said: 'Verily, thus far, whatever food ther
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