In this article, Hardik explains how consciousness is varied at different levels through physical body, mind, and emotions in a Yogic way.
Yoga and Bodies
In the law of physics, everything that is physical has a boundary.
Boundary fundamentally means limited identification of the physical object. In Yogic tradition, we refer to everything in the human system as a body. So, as a human we have is Physical body, Mental body, Emotional body, Energy body and there are few more above it which we would discuss later.
1) Physical body is solid and it has clear identification by boundaries of the human body, you can touch and identify the boundary.
2) Mental body is more subtle than the physical body. In the mental body, the thought carries a boundary. You would have heard the terms, ‘your thought is limited’ or ‘think out of the box’.
What does it essentially means that boundary of mental body is been decided by boundary of thought.
3) Then there is an Emotional body. Although nowadays the world is getting intellectual, emotions are very strong aspects of being human. The emotion may not be only anger, it could be anxiety, irritation, love, compassion and a few more. The emotions are nothing but a delayed and juicer version of the thought. Once you repeat certain thoughts for some time, the human system would have emotions towards that thought.
4) Energy body is still under the experience of the human system, but largely invisible. have you noticed, when you are joyful, you feel energetic? Your energy body expands and suppresses differently at different times. Nowadays, there are scientific ways exist to get photography of your energy body, a commonly referred name of it is ‘aura’.
There are two more bodies beyond this one, which we refer to in the yogic system as ‘gnanamaykosha‘ and ‘anandamaykosha‘.
5) Gnana means extraordinary knowledge. This is different than the experience of mental body in a way, that mental body is largely an accumulation of memory and logic that we mostly use for survival practices. However, Once you touch this dimension of intelligence, your sense increases to the highest level that there are no boundaries between you and the rest of the existence and you know everything that exists.
6) Ananda literally means bliss. It has nothing to do with physicality, and it is beyond physical. Once you touch this dimension of life, there is no physical structure that exist and it generates an overwhelming experience of bliss.
Gyana and Ananda bodies being non-physical in nature, one can not work on it, but they can touch the dimension of it in various ways.
Bodies and Consciousness
With physical body being solidly identified, it has more solid identification and highest level compulsions. Science has identified that DNA carries certain amount of memory patterns, and we know part of DNA patterns get carries from generations to generations.
Have you noticed, body strongly remembers the touch or physical relation with a person you had several years ago? The mind only has a small part of memory that one has, but the body has enormous amount of memory which remembers everything.
Let us say god comes in front of you, and want to heavily go to the toilet, which one you would choose? To hell with the god I want to go to the toilet first, isn’t it?
Don’t get disappointing here, there is some good news too. A genetic portion is only one part of the behavior. The body also has been built with food that you accumulated through these years, how you exercise and how your mental and emotional bodies control it. So, yes, there’s a free will, but essentially physical body has a higher compulsion.
The mental body is more subtle and s little less compulsive than the physical body. Let’s say a person has a hand which doesn’t in control and keeps doing its own thing. what would you call that person?
The mind plays an essential role in controlling the physical body. However, the body has a higher compulsion, so if you feel hungry body does its own compulsive things. Similarly, if you can manage energies, you can manage emotions and mind.
So, consciousness is always top to bottom, and compulsiveness is bottom to top, Largely driven by the physical nature of the human system.
Your sense and consciousness increases, as your upper body is in control of the more physical aspects of the body.
And, vise versa, your compulsion increases as your lower body drives the upper bodies.
Spiritual and Physical
Turning spiritual means, boundaries of the physical world do not exist for you. This drives everything in existence as one in your experience. You can still choose to operate with physicality and on the physical world, but it would be a more “inclusive” approach, which is not limited.
Love & Grace,
