Hare Krishna,
Dandavat Pranam,
All glories to Prabhupada,
I read the below article today :
Indian philosophy tells us that when you are born your consciousness becomes embodied and sheathed in energies that form your physical body and mind.
The embodied state consists of three bodies that work together, are interdependent and constantly interacting with each other.
These three bodies are:
1. Physical body – the gross, manifest body of flesh and blood
2. Subtle body – the mind and subtle forces that organize the gross physical
3. Causal (Spiritual) body – powerful unconscious causal forces that create you, that power the subtle body. These forces are beyond our capacity to understand.
The function of the three bodies is to give consciousness a vehicle that enables it to function in the world.
The subtle body is the link between the gross physical world and the spiritual, causal dimensions of existence.
my question:
Does Bhagwat Gita authenticates this fact ? I have no knowledge. Please forgive my offence of asking the question if it is a mayavadi philosophy. If not mayavadi then please explain.
Hari Bol !!!
Replies
Hare Krishna
Yes, subtle bodies remains even when the gross body is destroyed.
When a person, animal, plant dies, the soul and subtle body leave the gross body and take up a new gross body. So what we recognize as dead body is only the gross body.
Subtle body carries all sorts of unimaginably contaminated desires, experience and anarthas that force the soul to keep on changing bodies, practically endlessly. The one and only way to get rid of the subtle body is to purify the subtle body in this lifetime itself by chanting the holy names attentively.
Kindly take to the practice of Chanting hare Krishna maha mantra attentively 16 rounds everyday in case you are not already doing it
YS Bharat
Hare Krishna Rahul Prabhuji. Dandavat Pranam. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
BG 7.4: Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego — all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.
So the above eight (Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego) constitues Krishna's separated or inferior energy by which the Gross body and subtle body is created.
Gross Body - Combination of Earth, water, fire, air, ether.
Subtle Body- consists of mind, intelligence and false ego
Soul - Soul or conscious being is different from the gross and subtle body and is a part of Krishna's superior energy as Krishna explaining in BG 7.5: Besides these (gross and subtle) Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.
Now coming to your second query /*does the subtle body has independent existence ? I heard somewhere that even after rebirth or liberation the subtle body remains and roams . As in case of plan chat one contacts with the subtle body even if it has taken another birth. is it true ? */
Yes from above categorization of various bodies, we come to know subtle body exists separately and different from the soul. Subtle body is the creation of material nature (passion , ignorance, false ego). Subtle body consists of mind, intelligence and false ego, and each component has its presiding deity (means who controls these). we find the details in Bhagavatam SB 11.3.16.
Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the presiding Deity of consciousness, which becomes manifest within the mahat-tattva. By further transformations of the mahat-tattva the threefold false ego appears as follows. (1) From vaikārika, false ego in the mode of goodness, appears the eleventh sense, the mind, whose presiding Deity is Aniruddha. (2) From taijasa, false ego in the mode of passion, comes intelligence, whose presiding Deity is Pradyumna, and the five working senses and five knowledge-acquiring senses with their various presiding deities. (3) From false ego in the mode of ignorance arises the subtle form of sound, and from that sound, or śabda, all the material elements gradually become manifest, beginning with ether and the sense of hearing. The presiding Deity of these three divisions of false ego is Sańkarṣaṇa. This description is taken from Chapter 26 of the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, verses 21, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32 and 35.
So we understands from the above explanation that mind, intelleigence , and false ego is given to us thus we can exploit the matter for our enjoyment. So as long as desire is there to enjoy the matter, the mind, intelligence and false ego doesn't leave our soul. As air carries the Aroma similarly different conception of life get stored in subtle body and it carries the soul life after life (BG 15.8 :The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another.) . But when the soul performs devotional service, the subtle burned out and it leaves the soul upon leaving the current body, and the soul get back its original state which is sat-chid-ananda , the soul has its inbuilt intelligence and mind which is spiritual. Subtle body covers the orginal inbuilt mind and intelligence of the soul, thus soul can think himself as enjoyer because if false ego is being taken from us , we will no longer be able to think ourself as enjoyer.
Hope this will Help
Your aspiring Servant
Hari Bol
It is true, basically we have 3 bodies. Gross, subtle and the soul.
But in the reality in Ayurveda we can find that there are nearly 7 bodies, meaning emotional, causal...(i do not remember very correctly).
In Bhagavad Gita Krishna explains the philosophy in shortened form. And tells that it is widely explained in Vedanta sutra by Parashara Muni ...
About this we can learn in Srimad Bhagavatam. and also in ayurveda and astrology.
Your servant,
We have comprised of following:
1: GROSS BODY (STHOOL DEH)
2: SUBTLE BODY (SOOKSHMA DEH)
3: SOUL (GOD PARTICLE)
Lord Krishna says in Gita:
इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्यः परं मनः ।
मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः ॥
भावार्थ : इन्द्रियों को स्थूल शरीर से पर यानी श्रेष्ठ, बलवान और सूक्ष्म कहते हैं। इन इन्द्रियों से पर मन है, मन से भी पर बुद्धि है और जो बुद्धि से भी अत्यन्त पर है वह आत्मा है॥
If you read Srimad Bhagavatam, you will realize the above facts and after going thru the full bhagavad gita you shall agree to this.
hari bol!!! bol hari!!!!