By Victor M Fontane
In Himduism (Vedas), a human being is considered composed of three bodies (sharira in Sanskrit): the karana sharira (causal body), linga sharira (subtle or astral body) and Karma sharira (Gross or physical body). These three bodies are connected, and a person functions best when they are in harmony with one another.
Karana sharira is the causal body within Hinduism's three-body philosophy, and is considered the most complex. From Sanskrit, karana translates to “causing,” “making” or “muscle”; and sharira means “body.” Karana sharira is thought to be the portal to entering higher consciousness, as well as the cause of the existence of the gross and subtle bodies. It connects both the individual and cosmic consciousness together, and is believed to store information from past lives.
The karana sharira is what continues on after the other bodies are gone, and is the “seed” for a new life in a new body. In some Hinduism schools of thought, the karana sharira is considered the atman, while opposing schools consider the atman separate from the causal body. In each seed is the past, present and future. The future is in the womb of the present.
The linga sharira is made up of the pranamaya kosha (vital life breath), manomaya kosha (mind) and the vijnanamaya kosha (intellect). It includes the five organs of sense, the organs of action (genitals, anus, hands, legs and speech), the five vital breaths, as well as wisdom and intellect. So the five senses are in the astral body, demostrated on surgeries or dying patients when they leave the physical body floating in the operation room hearing the conversation and seeing the process and capable of describing in detail what they saw.
The karya sharira or physical body is made up of the five elements (air, fire, water, ether and earth) and goes through multiple changes throughout life (birth, growth, maturity/wisdom, aging/decay and death). The karya sharira ceases to exist after an individual dies, although the subtle and causal bodies may live on in reincarnation. As such, the karya sharira may also be referred to as the anatman because it is nonspiritual and ceases after death.
A graphic example of how the three bodies works is being in a dark room with a little hole in the wall where the Sun light can pass and enter hitting a mirror where you can see the Sun, then the light ray bounce and is reflected in a metal plate where again you can see the shape of the Sun, which in turn finally reflects it on the wall where you see again the shape of the Sun. But the Sun is not really in the mirror, the metal plate or the wall is just reflected three times, thus, the quality and energy of the image will degrade in each reflection. So, the mind is the mirror which is capable of reproducing clearly the Sun light as is also capable of reflecting almost purely the ray or energy of consciousness which is collective. The mirror represent the causal body (karana sharira) who actually go from incarnation to incarnation taking the karmic seeds, the metal plate represents the subtle or astral body (linga sharira) and the wall represent the physical body (karya sharira).
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