By David Bruce Hughes

There is suffering in life, and this suffering affects everyone without exception. This universal suffering has three causes: one’s own body and mind, other living entities and natural forces.

Type of suffering	Symptoms
Adhiatmika (caused by oneself)	Hunger, thirst, desire, old age, disease, death, rebirth, ignorance, wrong conceptions, lust, sinful actions, poverty, anxiety, fear
Adhibautika (caused by others)	Exploitation of various kinds: economic, political, religious, sexual; lies, broken promises, disinformation, violence, lack of compassion
Adhidaivika (caused by natural forces)	Hurricanes and other storms, earthquakes, war, pestilence, epidemics, the pushing of time, the rotation of the historical ages

Because no one wants this suffering, we are driven to find a solution or cure. This is the root cause of all human growth and conscious evolution. Our search for relief from the suffering of life goes through six well-defined stages of consciousness, until it reaches perfection in the cessation of all suffering. All states of consciousness experienced in human life fall somewhere in this spectrum of six stages of solutions for our suffering.

Note: Read the following table from the bottom up:

Sanskrit name	Description
Anandamaya	Experience transcendental bliss by engaging in devotional service
Vijnanamaya	End all suffering by realization of spiritual knowledge
Jnanamaya	Attempt to end suffering by acquisition of spiritual knowledge
Manomaya	Attempt to end suffering by developing mental strength
Pranamaya	Attempt to end suffering by acquisition of strength, power and energy
Annamaya	Attempt to end suffering by acquisition of food and other material possessions

The following sections discuss each of these six stages in more detail.

Annamaya

Anna means grain or food, and we see this stage of consciousness beginning in infancy, when a baby thinks, “If I can just get something to eat, I will be happy.” Sometimes this works, and the baby will then sleep peacefully for awhile. Other times, the baby develops indigestion or colic, and the attempt leads to more suffering. In any case, this is a very primitive, short-term solution to the endemic problem of human suffering based on the gross bodily conception of life.

This same mentality is visible in people who are addicted to material possessions of all kinds. They think that if they can just get enough of whatever they conceive will end their suffering, they will be happy. So people spend their whole lives trying to collect food, money, friends, honor, fame, sex, and all kinds of material possessions like land, houses, vehicles and others. This acquisitiveness becomes so obsessive that many people mortgage their entire future, chaining themselves to a lifetime of labor, anxiety, economic exploitation and enslavement just to have what they consider the material necessities of life.

Sometimes we see the annamaya mentality dragged to a ridiculous extent, as when a rich person collects dozens of automobiles. No one needs so many cars, but in the annamaya stage of consciousness, one thinks that accumulation is the solution to all suffering. Of course, people in the annamaya stage do not know that all these efforts are doomed to end in failure and frustration, and that whatever relief they gain is temporary at best. So it is a rather pathetic and tragic stage of existence.

Pranamaya

After much hard work and struggle in the annamaya stage to collect an abundance of possessions, one feels exhausted. One also experiences that as soon as one has collected more than one’s actual share of anything—be it food, money or whatever—someone else will try to take it away. This experience leads to the conclusion that one must become strong and powerful, both to work even harder and collect even more, and also to defend what one has collected against competitors and inevitable losses due to time. This is the pranamaya stage of consciousness.

Prana means life energy, so in this stage we see people trying to increase their energy and power by different means. Bodybuilding, jogging and other exercise, hatha-yoga, pranayama, special diets, political ambition, Machiavellian scheming, attaining positions or posts of rank and power, martial arts, acquisition and use of weapons, arrangements for military defense, violent conquest—all these are simply manifestations of the pranamaya stage of consciousness.

However, no matter how powerful one becomes, there is always someone or something more powerful. And no amount of acquisition of power can prevent old age, disease and death; suffering that comes from one’s own body and mind. Therefore people in the pranamaya stage ultimately have to accept defeat, because no matter how much power they accumulate, in the end their own self (in the bodily concept of life) is their undoing.

Manomaya

Stung by the failure of accumulating gross physical possessions, energy and power to solve the problems of life, one may turn to mental solutions to seek relief from life’s suffering. This is called manomaya, from mana meaning ‘mind.’ The manomaya stage encompasses all kinds of accumulation of knowledge, scientific research, psychological therapies, philosophy, theology and mental speculation, cultivation of psychic abilities, the preliminary stages of concentration and meditation, magic, all the way to the acquisition of subtle mental and mystic powers.

The reasoning behind the manomaya state of consciousness goes something like this: “Although I and others have tried various remedies for the suffering of life, we have not been successful because we did not properly understand the laws of the universe. I shall study and learn these laws, gross and subtle, by means of which I shall put an end to all misery.”

Those in the manomaya stage are closer to the Truth, because they have understood that the power of universal law rules over all, and that the application of intelligence is the key to solving the problems of life. However, they still think they can eliminate suffering in material life by their own labor. Therefore even after great effort, they also have to accept inevitable old age, disease, death and rebirth in the material world.

Jnanamaya

A person who is actually advanced in knowledge, either in terms of his own life experience or by observing others, may come to the conclusion that, “Although I and others have searched for knowledge, we were unable to solve the problems of life. Therefore we have not been able to find either the kind or quality of knowledge we need to end our suffering. Let us therefore search for the ultimate knowledge, the Absolute Truth, or that knowledge, by knowing which, nothing remains unknown.” This is jnanamaya, or the search for the Absolute Truth.

Jnana means spiritual knowledge. The jnanamaya stage is commonly the domain of religion and advanced spiritual philosophy. It is an attempt to pass beyond the relative stage of existence and consciousness and attain absolute knowledge, or a level of truth that is immune to the changing conditions of the material world. Most material truth is relative, that is, it is true only under certain limited conditions: “It is raining” is an example of conditional truth. A less conditional truth would be: “Bodies with mass attract each other with a force inversely proportional to their distance.”

However, Absolute Truth is true under all conditions, for any kind of being in any dimension of space or time. An example of Absolute Truth is: “The Supreme Being is omniscient and omnipresent.” There is no exception to this statement; therefore it is unconditional or Absolute Truth. When a person begins to research the Absolute Truth, they are very close to the end of suffering and the cessation of all misery. This search is fulfilled when they encounter the Esoteric Teaching, or the noumenal knowledge that underlies all authentic religious teachings and spiritual traditions.

Vijnanamaya

In the vijnanamaya stage, one takes the knowledge of the Absolute Truth mastered in the jnanamaya stage—the Esoteric Teaching—and applies it practically in one’s life. Vijnana means applied or realized knowledge, as distinct from theoretical or book knowledge. There are three main stages of realization of the Absolute Truth: the impersonal Brahman, the Paramatma or Lord of the heart, and Bhagavan or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anyone who attains complete realization of these three forms or aspects of Godhead has reached the complete cessation of material miseries, for he has passed beyond relative material consciousness and reawakened his absolute, eternal spiritual consciousness. This is liberation from material consciousness and existence. With this liberation, one no longer needs a material body, which is the actual source of all material suffering. Therefore one finds the solution to all forms of material suffering at last in liberation from material consciousness in the vijnanamaya stage.

Anandamaya

But there is a stage of conscious evolution beyond the complete cessation of material miseries. This is anandamaya, or the stage of eternal bliss. So far in our analysis of the stages of conscious evolution, our preoccupation has been to find a way out of the suffering of material existence. Once we have attained spiritual consciousness and become liberated from the pernicious influence of matter, then what is our occupation? This is anandamaya.

Ananda means bliss. In the anandamaya stage, one lives in a spiritual body on a spiritual planet with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His plenary expansions and eternal associates. The anandamaya stage of existence is depicted in the Scriptures of the Esoteric Teaching as being wonderful beyond description. The people who have attained the spiritual planets by perfection of self-realization are so happy they forget whether it is night or day; they even forget their own names because of being saturated with ecstatic transcendental bliss. This is anandamaya, and it is the goal of all existence.

Conclusion

It is a long, long journey from the primitive materialistic conception of annamaya to the exalted stage of anandamaya, yet all of us without exception are on the same path. The world is a school. Life is the classroom. Our suffering is the curriculum. God is the Teacher. Death is the final examination. There are no shortcuts, and no possibility of cheating. There will be a quiz. Any questions?