A short mantra and meditation to experience the bliss body, this class invites you to experience joy as a felt sensation. As you take your seat, ask yourself, what does joy feel like in the body? How do I experience joy? You’ll join Clara to chant a mantra for bliss, Om Shri Anandaye Namaha. This mantra translates to the idea of recognizing and honoring the bliss we carry within.

Style: Mantra & Meditation

Duration: 18-mins

Level: Open-level

Props: none

Focus: Visualization and breath

Location: Lila Familia Production Studio, Vancouver, BC

Come to sit or lay down on your mat and open practice with a brief meditation on the concept of joy. Consider all the things that bring you joy in your life and how your body feels when you’re joyful. What are the sensations? What are some of the qualities of joy in your body? If you could choose three words to describe your body’s felt state of joy, what would they be?

The Bliss Body of the Koshas 

According to Vedic philosophy, the individual has five layers of the self known as the koshas. The koshas represent the five unique body’s that create each individual. In this meditation, we focus on the fifth and most subtle layer of Anandamaya kosha, the bliss body.

The first and grossest kosha is the Annamaya kosha, being the physical body. It deals with all the things that we take in, such as what we feel and eat.

The second kosha is Pranamaya kosha, being the layer just below. Pranamaya kosha is your energetic body. We work with this kosha through the body’s energy lines; in yoga, we call the energy lines nadis, and in TCM and acupuncture, they’re called meridians.

The third kosha is Manomaya kosha, which represents your emotional body. It represents the mind and emotions, and who we think we are.

The fourth kosha is the Vijnanamaya kosha, which represents the intuitive or wisdom body.

The fifth kosha is Anandamaya kosha, the bliss body, or what some might call the soul.

The practice of Vedantic yoga would be to deal with all of the layers; all the various bodies that contribute to the individual. Generally, we’re more preoccupied with one of the layers, so for example, for those of us preoccupied with the physical body, we would be working with Annamaya kosha. The koshas can be a gateway into your practice to connect you with that specific body, so for meditation, it would be a practice for Manomaya kosha.

Meaning of the Mantra

Chant this mantra to remind yourself of the sensation of joy in the body. This mantra offers blessings and salutations to the bliss that lives within; it calls upon the state of bliss to fill our bodies and light us up from the inside.

Om = primordial sound

Shri = blessings and salutations

Anandaye = bliss

Namaha = I bow to thee