The Three Bodies according to the yoga teachings

According to the teachings of yoga, man is adorned with 3 bodies, causal, astral and physical, as outlined in the following verses.

Karana sarira – or causal body

The causal body is merely the cause or seed of the subtle body and the gross body. It has no other function.

It is nirvikalpa, "undifferentiated form" It originates with avidya, "ignorance" or "nescience" of the real identity of the atman or Self, instead giving birth to the notion of jiva (individualized soul.

Swami Shivananda characterizes the causal body as "The beginningless ignorance that is indescribable “It is also described as the causal body as characterized by "emptiness", "ignorance", and "darkness”. In the search for the "I am", this is a state where there is nothing to hold on to anymore.

Suksma sarira - subtle body

Suksma sarira or the subtle body is the body of the mind and the vital energies, which keep the physical body alive. Together with the causal body it is the transmigrating soul or jiva, separating from the gross body upon death.

Sthula sarira - gross body

Sthula sarira or the gross body is the material physical mortal body that eats, breathes and moves (acts). It is composed of many diverse components, produced by one’s karmas (actions) in past life out of the elements which have undergone Panchikarana i.e. combining of the five primordial subtle elements.

It is the instrument of Jiva’s experience, which, attached to the body and dominated by Ahamkara, uses the body’s external and internal organs of sense and action. The Jiva, identifying itself with the body, in its waking state enjoys gross objects. On its body rests man’s contact with the external world.

The Sthula sarira’s main features are Sambhava (birth), Jara (old age or ageing) and Maranam (death), and the "Waking State". The Sthula sarira is the anatman.

Correlations with other models, Kosha

The Taittiriya Upanishad describes five koshas, which are also often equated with the three bodies. The three bodies are often equated with the five koshas (sheaths), which cover the atman:

    Sthula sarira, the Gross body, also called the Annamaya Kosha

    Suksma sarira', the Subtle body, composed of:

        Pranamaya Kosha (Vital breath or Energy),

        Manomaya Kosha (Mind),

        Vijnanamaya Kosha (Intellect)

    Karana sarira, the Causal body, the Anandamaya Kosha (Bliss)

 Four states of consciousness and turiya

The Mandukya Upanishad describes four states of consciousness, namely waking consciousness, dream, and deep sleep, and turiya, the base-consciousness.

Waking consciousness, dream, and deep sleep are equated with the three bodies, while turiya is a fourth state, which is equated with atman (Self) and purusha (Spirit).

Turiya

Turiya, pure consciousness, is the fourth state. It is the background that underlies and transcends the three common states of consciousness. In this consciousness both absolute and relative, Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman (Saguna Brahman means Brahman with infinite attributes, including form, Nirguna Brahman is without form or attributes).

Four bodies

Siddharameshwar Maharaj, the guru of Nisargadatta Maharaj, discerns four bodies, by including turiya or the "Great-Causal Body" as a fourth body. Here resides the knowledge of "I am" that cannot be described, the state before Ignorance and Knowledge, or Turiya state.

Atma vijnana

According to the Advaita Vedanta tradition, knowledge of the "Self" or atman can be gained by self-inquiry, investigating the three bodies, and disidentifying from them. It is a method which is well-known from Ramana Maharshi, but also from Nisargadatta Maharaj and his teacher Siddharameshwar Maharaj.

By subsequently identifying with the three lower bodies, investigating them, and discarding identification with them when it has become clear that they are not the "I", the sense of "I am" beyond knowledge and Ignorance becomes clearly established.

In this investigation the three bodies are recognized as not being anatman, the idea that there is no self.

Essentially, man as a soul is a causal-bodied being. His causal body is an idea-matrix for the astral and physical bodies.

Man's subtle body of light, or prana; the second of three sheaths that successively encase the soul: the causal body, the astral body, and the physical body.

The powers of the astral body enliven the physical body, much as electricity illumines a bulb. The astral body has nineteen elements: intelligence, ego, feeling, mind (sense consciousness); five instruments of knowledge (the sensory powers within the physical organs of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch); five instruments of action (the executive powers in the physical instruments of procreation, excretion, speech, locomotion, and the exercise of manual skill); and five instruments of life force that perform the functions of circulation, metabolization, assimilation, crystallization, and elimination.

This subject is unknown to many people who simply think of themselves as mind/body beings.