Manomaya-kośa

Sheath made of mind

The mental sheath: manas, the field of saṅkalpa-vikalpa (assertion and doubt), of sense-impressions and the chatter of intention. Taittirīya II.3 describes it filling the prāṇa-body with the same human form. Vedānta classes it with the lower mind — reactive, ruled by the indriyas — and locates it conventionally at the throat-and-head axis where speech, hearing, and discursive thought concentrate. It is the sheath in which the Vedas, mantras, and ritual instructions are received and rehearsed. Discrimination begins here but does not end here.