Vijnanamaya-Kosha
Vijñānamaya-Kośa (IAST)Translation: "The Sheath of the Intellect"
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: विज्ञानमयकोश
Transliteration: Vijñānamaya-Kośa
Translation: "the sheath of the intellect"
Definition: "It is located within the mental sheath (Manomaya-Kośa). These two, together with the Prāṇamaya-Kośa, constitute the subtle body."
Sanskrit: विज्ञान
Transliteration: Vijñāna
Translation: "wisdom; cognition; intellect, consciousness; stream of consciousness (from the verb root jñā – "to know" + vi – "apart," hence, "to discern")"
Definition:- One of the twelve links in the causal chain of existence (Pratītyasamutpāda).
- One of the five aggregates (Skandha.)
- The intellect. It is also called Buddhi.
Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo)
Vijñānakośa (Vijnanakosha; Vijnana-Kosha) — the sheath (Kośa) corresponding to Vijñāna, “the knowledge-sheath, the causal [Kāraṇa] body,” by living in which the human being “will be able to draw down entirely into his terrestrial existence the fullness of the infinite spiritual consciousness.”
Vijñānamaya (Vijnanamaya; Vijnanamay) — supra-intellectual; having the nature of Vijñāna, the principle that links Saccidānanda to mind, life and matter and is revealed through the faculties of Smṛti, Śruti and Dṛṣṭi; expressing the principle of Vijñāna involved in or subordinated to the principle of another plane, such as the physical or mental.
Vijñāna (Vijnana; Vijnanam; Vijnan) — “the large embracing consciousness . . . which takes into itself all truth and idea and object of knowledge and sees them at once in their essence, totality and parts or aspects,” the “comprehensive consciousness” which is one of the four functions of active consciousness (see Ājñānam), a mode of awareness that is “the original, spontaneous, true and complete view” of existence and “of which mind has only a shadow in the highest operations of the comprehensive intellect;” the faculty or plane of consciousness above Buddhi or intellect, also called ideality, gnosis or supermind (although these are distinguished in the last period of the Record of Yoga as explained under the individual terms), whose instruments of knowledge and power form the Vijñāna Catuṣṭaya; the Vijñāna Catuṣṭaya itself; the psychological principle or degree of consciousness that is the basis of Maharloka, the “World of the Vastness” that links the worlds of the transcendent existence, consciousness and bliss of Saccidānanda to the lower Triloka of mind, life and matter, being itself usually considered the lowest plane of the Parārdha or higher hemisphere of existence. Vijñāna is “the knowledge of the One and the Many, by which the Many are seen in the terms of the One, in the infinite unifying Truth, Right, Vast [Satyam Ṛtaṃ Bṛhat] of the divine existence”.
References:
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Hartz, Richard. Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo). Retrieved from http://wiki.auroville.org.in/wiki/Glossary_to_the_Record_of_Yoga
