Yoga, like all the authentic esoteric traditions of humanity, regards the human being as made up of a hierarchical system of successive, more or less subtle bodies, each vibrating with a certain dominant frequency, which envelops its Immortal Godly Self (Atman).
The three fundamental bodies of the human being are: 1) the causal body (karana sharira), 2) the subtle or astral body (sukshma sharira) and 3) the coarse body or the physical body (sthula sharira). These are made up by a particular grouping of the five sheaths (kosha) of the human being (annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha and anandamaya kosha).
Karana sharira is referred to as the causal body because it contains the causes or ‘seeds’ from which the coarse or bodily sheath and the subtle or astral body are generated. The subtle or astral body and the causal body are permanent, they exist even after the death of the body and act together.
In the Physical World, on Earth, man is more or less conscious of these three bodies in the waking state. When he receives olfactory, gustatory, visual, tactile or auditory impressions, it is the physical body that is most utilized and engaged. Creative visualization or any act of volition originate from and are closely connected to the astral body; the causal sheath, in its turn, expresses itself mainly in pure and elevated thought, in introspection, and especially in deep meditation of a godly nature.
The astral or subtle body – sukshma sharira – consists of three subtle sheaths: 1) vijnanamaya kosha (the supramental or higher intellect sheath), which contains the five essences or elementary principles tanmatra and the higher intellect, buddhi, 2) manomaya kosha (the mental sheath), which contains the personal consciousness complex ahamkara-manas-citta, and 3) pranamaya kosha (the etheric or vital sheath), which contains the instruments of knowledge, jnanendriya, the instruments of action, karmendriya, and the five subtle breaths, vayu.
The astral body is totally impervious to cold, heat or any other natural external condition. Through the astral body, we can communicate or receive various states instantaneously, through telepathy, empathy and psychic ‘television’ or spontaneous psychic clairvoyance.
The coarse body or the physical body – the sthula sharira – is at the lowest level of vibrational frequency and is composed of the five material elements (bhutas): subtle earth (prithivi), subtle water (apas), subtle fire (tejas), subtle air (vayu) and subtle ether (akasha).
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