Gross body is physical body that is made up of the Panchmahabhutas – the five primordial elements, i.e., Akash (vacuum), Vayu (air), Agni (fire), Jal (water) and Prithvi (earth) and is subject to a sixfold change: birth, subsistence, growth, maturity, decay, and death.  It is born as a result of worthy and creditable deeds of the past. It is the prime channel through which the soul communicates with the outward entities and experiences both the pleasures and miseries of life. Gross body is simply the vehicle of all the other Principles (bodies) during physical incarnation. Annamaya & part (physical manifestation) of Pranamaya Kosh reside in Gross (physical) body. Gross body needs gross food, drink and air which it gets from Annamaya and Pranamaya Kosha. At death the physical body perishes and its five constituent elements are dissolved.

According to the Hindu philosophy the prime objective of the Gross body (Sthula sharira) is to attain the knowledge of the self, experience divine bliss and reach the acme of spirituality which would lead to Salvation (Moksha) finally in this short span of human life. The human soul gets entrapped in this mundane world of untold desires and thereby experiences all sorts of pain and pleasures resulting from the attachments to various desires and wants.