Marcia Beloved ,

It is hard to pin down what is described there as anandamaya kosha. However some authorities in India, like Swami Shivananda standardized some meanings which set them in some rigid structure which I find to be inconsistent with reality.

The ananda maya which I described is not a kosha or sheath but is rather the material of the coreSelf itself. For example, a garment which is made of cotton is itself cotton. The cotton is not a sheath or kosha. It is the item itself.

It may be that there are better explanations of those terms elsewhere which would clarify. However it is part of the Indian attitude to make things rigid by these definitions like the one on that page which you referred to.

Someone may challenge like this:

If it is the actual self which is that ananda maya material, then explain why some other types of feelings of the self are experienced at other times, for example when a person is depressed or anxious, or when a person is fearful in an astral projection or when a person is sick due to ill health of the physical body.

That is a reasonable challenge, isn’t it?

The answer is that even though the material of the coreSelf is blissful spiritual light, still somehow by the power of nature, that material is apparently stained or cancelled or superimposed by other energies. Whenever that occurs it loses track of itself.

The example given to understand this was given by Paramhansa Ramakrishna where he cited a crystal gem. Even though it is absolutely transparent and has no defects in formation which are visible, still if you put it near to a red light, it will assume a red tinge. Then again if you put it near a blue light, it will assume a blue hue.

But then if you put it in sunlight at noon, it will show itself as being transparent. For some reason it is apparently affected by the environment it is placed it or is subjected to but even so, if somehow it is removed from contrary influences and is exposed to a clear environment, it will show itself as it is.