Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Human Body!




According to yoga, the human being is composed of several concentric
bodies, or sheaths of energy‑ consciousness, from gross to subtle levels.
1. The physical body: the material, visible part of the human being,
including the body consciousness at the cellular level which acts without any
mental will of our own or even against that will; it has emerged from the
Inconscient, the inverse reproduction of the Supreme Superconscient.
2. The vital body: the life nature made up of desires, sensations,
feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, possessive and other
related instincts, anger, fear, greed, lust, sorrow, joy, hatred, repulsion,
pride, small likings and dislikings, etc.
3. The mental body (manas): sense‑mind; that part which has to do with
cognition, perception through the senses, the reactions of thoughts to things,
the putting out of mental forces for realization of an idea; the expression of
ideas as through speech.
4. The intellectual body (buddhi): reasoning‑mind; that which analyzes,
synthesizes and constructs ideas from signs, indications and gathered data; mind
is a subordinate power of Supermind which takes its stand in the standpoint of
division, actually forgetful here of the oneness behind, though able to return
to it by reillumination from the Supramental (Truth‑Consciousness).
5. The spiritual body: the eternal true being or Self of the individual;
the spiritual consciousness is that in which we enter into the awareness of
self, the Spirit, the Divine and is able to see in all things their essential
Reality and the play of forces and phenomena as proceeding from essential
Reality.

(Aurobindo, 1978, pp. 10, 55‑91, 147‑148, 160, 177, 198, in Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition,p.21)

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