An explanation of the four bodies and three worlds

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Digital Blackboard - August 13, 2004

It is said that Saint Tukaram went to the abode of Lord Vishnu (Vaikuntha) along with his body. This indicates a bodiless state. "Along with his body" means while he was still alive. To put it in simple words, although Saint Tukaram possessed a body, he had abandoned body-consciousness, so it is said that he had become bodiless (Videhi). The body is but one sheath, or a covering on the Self.

There are five sheaths, and there are four bodies. The four bodies are:

1. The physical, or gross body, which has the waking state as its main attribute. It is visible to the physical eye and possesses a definite shape.

2. The subtle body, which is characterized by the dream state. It is not visible to the eye, yet it functions in a manner similar to the gross body. It consists of the mind, the intellect, the thinking, the vital breaths or energies (pranas), and the ego or identification as "I".

3. The causal body is ignorance, and is characterized by deep sleep. It is this dreamless deep sleep itself, which is the state of the causal body. It is a state of forgetfulness, where "nothing" is experienced.

4. The supracausal body does not represent any kind of world. It exists as the fourth state, the Turya state. It is the "I Am" or "I am He" (Soham) state. As long as one feels limited or bound by the previously mentioned three bodies, he is called the individual (Jiva), and when one transcends them, one is transformed into God (Shiva).

The five sheaths are:

1. The gross body is the sheath of food (Annamaya). The subtle body has three sheaths associated with it which are, the sheath of the pranas or vital breaths (Pranamaya), the sheath of mind (Manomaya), and the sheath of intellect (Buddhimaya). The fifth sheath is associated with the causal body and is called the sheath of bliss (Anandamaya).

The three worlds, 1) heaven, 2) the mundane world we live in, sometimes called the world of death, as death is inevitable, and 3) the netherworlds, are none other than the gross (characterized by waking state), the subtle (characterized by dreaming state), and the causal bodies (characterized by the deep sleep state) respectively.

Everyone naturally possesses a depth which is deeper than the nethermost world. That is why the why proper utilization of the human body can help bring about the transformation of the ordinary human being (Nara) into the Lord (Narayana).

Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj - from a talk given January 21, 1933