The Sheath of Bliss
The sheath of bliss (anandamayakosha) is the modification of avidya in the form of the happiness which is experienced in the waking and dream states. In these two states the happiness arises on the attainment of some desired object. This sheath is fully manifested in the state of deep sleep. But even this sheath is not the Atma because it is also a modification of avidya.
When all the five sheaths are thus eliminated one by one, what remains is
pure consciousness, which is the Atma.
The Atma which is self-effulgent, distinct from the five sheaths, the
unchanging witness of the states of waking, dream and deep sleep, which is
always of the nature of bliss, and is not tainted by the defects of the sheaths,
is to be realized as one’s self.
The disciple now raises a doubt-- when all the five sheaths are
eliminated there appears to be only void. So what is there to be realized as the
self?
The guru answers that there is an entity that is the witness of the
presence as well as the absence of these sheaths and their modifications. This
witness is the self.
The self or Atma shines in the states of waking, dream and deep sleep. It
is behind the awareness as ‘I’. It is the witness of the ego-sense and of
the functioning of all the organs. It is self-effulgent, eternal and bliss
itself.
A person of dull intellect thinks that the reflection of the sun in a pot
of water is the sun itself. Similarly, human beings, being deluded by avidya
(nescience), think that the reflection of pure consciousness in the mind is the
Atma. A wise man knows that the sun in the sky is different from the pot, the
water in the pot and the reflection, and that the sun illumines all the three of
them. Similarly the Atma is different from the mind and the reflection of
consciousness in it and it illumines them. The Atma has therefore to be realized
as different from the body, mind and organs, as self-luminous, eternal,
infinite, extremely subtle, and identical with Brahman. On this realization the
person becomes liberated from transmigratory existence. The realization of
one’s real nature as Brahman is the only means to liberation.