What if joy is not a peak to reach, but a layer already alive within you? In this final post, we follow the progression of the koshas back toward timelessness, uncovering how wisdom, alignment, and creative devotion collapse the illusion of separation.
The fourth kosha is called Vijnanamaya Kosha.
Vijnana means wisdom.
It’s the illusion of the layer of consciousness of wisdom.
After you have become more in alignment—
aligning thoughts, words, feelings, and actions—
you can step outside of yourself.
Maybe dreams become more potent.
Maybe meditations become more potent.
You can start seeing things from the outside, looking in,
making deeper and more abstract connections.
Just a thought can transform a situation.
As you reach this level of alignment, manifestation becomes more easy,
more effortless, and more quick.
This is how we start to close the gap
between the single moment awareness and timelessness, where we come from.
The fifth and final layer is called Anandamaya Kosha.
It has the least dense frequency of all of the koshas.
If you can imagine the light frequencies and the color existing within each frequency—
red comes after infrared, and violet comes before ultraviolet,
along the frequencies of light.
We can see everything in between.
Infrared and ultraviolet aren’t available to human eyes.
Similarly, the Anamaya Kosha—the physical body—has a slower frequency,
and the frequencies get faster and faster,
with Anandamaya Kosha being the most fine, most delicate, most subtle.
Instead of thinking of it as slow to fast, think of it as dense to subtle.
Ananda means joy.
The illusion of the layer of consciousness that is joy.
And we inhabit all five layers at any given time.
This layer is available at any given time.
As you become more adept at moving through these koshas,
resolving blockages in the physical body,
then the energy body,
then the mental body,
then the higher self…
There become fewer and fewer gaps
between what you would like to do and what you are doing.
Fewer and fewer gaps between the peak experience you’re looking forward to and the experience.
Fewer moments of downtime, of lag time, of boredom,
of wishing you were at a different job,
wishing you were in a different city,
wishing you were in a different relationship.
After you’ve moved through your own blockages—
it’s just this.
Just bliss.
And the beauty of the nature of being here
is that this layer is always available to us.
Even in times of suffering.
All of these things are always available to us.
The reason why it’s called Nondualism is because these dualities
show us the way home. They show us what we are not, so we know what we are.
Unbrokenness is who we really are.
Existing simultaneously with these illusions of circumstances, lineages…
This path through the koshas is the yogic path.
It doesn’t happen all at once.
And it doesn’t happen in a straight line.
The practitioner gets enough tastes along the way
that they know that it’s real—
and this keeps the practitioner devoted
to the practice of remembering.
The path of nonduality isn’t abstract—it’s alive in how we teach, create, and live. Want to bring this consciousness into your classroom, organization, or event? Reach out to Colors Make Shapes.
© 2025 Andrea Merello. All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce this content without permission.
