Bodies of Light

Wisdom Teachings
Etheric Existence
The Etheric Body

Many people believe that we are the physical body and that we die with this body. But it is ignorance to identify with the body. It is like a house in which we live. We are the inhabitants of the form; we have entered into it to experience the splendour of creation and find fulfilment. We always come back into a form because we have not yet experienced the full potential until fulfilment.

Most people do not know that the body of flesh and blood has the potential to develop two more bodies. With the help of our body we can form a body of golden light and a body of diamond light. With the physical body we can experience the visible universe and with the other two subtle bodies we can experience the subtle and the causal universe.

When we came into the physical body as souls, we came from a plane beyond the causal plane; the soul came via the causal and the subtle plane and then entered the physical plane. Our formation within the human form has gone through all these stages.

The Vedic scriptures say that the human body is a rare opportunity given to the soul. It is the means for every mundane and super-mundane achievement and fulfilment. In no other body is it possible to gain the knowledge of attaining the truth and, through a proper use of the form, of creating the golden and diamond bodies - at least one of them. With the golden body, it is easier to form the diamond body. But without the body of flesh and blood, we cannot build the other bodies.

The physical body is the raw material, just as milk is the basis for butter and ghee. When butter is collected from the milk and formed into a ball, the ball floats in the milk; it does not mix up with it again. In the same way, when our body is put to transformation through a specific process of yoga, it develops from within the body of golden light. The soul then floats with the golden body within the body of flesh and blood.

The yogic process that produces the golden body is done by conducting the union of the cell fire with the fire of prana. The preparation of this body is an important step in the path of yoga; it requires a life of service and an orientation to the surrounding life, along with contemplation and meditation.

This golden body of light has been given various names: subtle body, ethereal body (of the fourth ether), Antahkarana Sarira or also Sukshma Sarira. Gross physical, emotional and mental planes are also of ether, but they are grosser stages of ether. The golden light of the etheric body relates to the Buddhic state of ether. It emerges from the heart lotus and eventually aspirants would gain the touch of pure love. We should not confuse the etheric body with the body of the soul. The causal body is the vehicle of the soul. The soul itself is the vehicle of the spirit. The etheric body is of golden light; the causal body is of diamond light.

The body of golden hue is like a miniature form of the body of flesh and blood; it has the same contours and features. The miniature form is flexible in its nature. It can grow big or small and it can even fly. With this golden body, we can consciously go out of the physical body, move around and return to it. The most important aspect of this body is that it survives the body of flesh and blood. It lives much longer, and the body of diamond light has an even longer life cycle, but it also has an end.

Yoga science was received by the ancient seers to transcend death and gain immortality so that we can enjoy the continuity of consciousness. When we have built the body of golden light, the body of flesh and blood can fall off at its death; we then leave it in full consciousness and remain in the body of golden light. This is called nirvana. So, we can consciously be born again and resume yoga at a very young age and continue our goal in the golden body.

Meditation during the full moon helps us to build the etheric body of golden light; if we align ourselves with the new moon energies, adjustments are made in our desire body. Thus, the alignment to the cycles of new moon and full moon helps us on our path.

In a more advanced state, we build the body of diamond light and free ourselves from the body of golden light. Then we are in a state of awareness called Paranirvana. For the causal body to be born in us, the Ajna centre must be opened. Therefore, in Ajna we contemplate on the diamond light.

Later we can even free ourselves from the body of diamond light because it is still a limitation. This is called Mahaparanirvana or the destruction of Solomon's temple. Afterwards, we are just the soul which is the vehicle of the spirit. Then the experience of the soul is just THAT I AM, and we experience eternity.

All great initiates remain with Brahman when their task is fulfilled. According to the will of the Divine, they can take again to bodies to work for the welfare of humanity on this planet. Master CVV said, “My work is to ensure that you realise Brahman. To do this, I will enable a faster formation of the bodies of light and thereby you will be able to realize that there is no death.”

Master CVV hastens the process by which the subtle body is built from matter of the Buddhic plane, the fourth ether. He ensures that the etheric form is condensed so that all the memory remains in it and that we get the free will to incarnate again or not to incarnate again. He said: “Whosoever invokes Me, I give my presence and repair all the defects in his body, transmute his cells and give him a golden body, so that he can consciously depart from the body and not experience death.” With much conviction he announced that whosoever follows this path of yoga does not die, but transcends death.

The causal body of diamond light is the memory body. It is also called Vajra Sarira, Karana Sarira or Linga Sarira. It makes us feel 'I AM'. If we as 'I AM' remain independent of the others, we experience it as 'I and the other', 'I and you'.

This 'I AM' gathers insights and experiences as well as karma from incarnation to incarnation. Karma in Sanskrit means action. As long as our actions are done with a personal motive and for the sake of a result, we are within the causal world where cause and effect continue to bind us. This is what we call actions with consequences. If we create consequences, we must also react again to the consequences. In the scriptures there is a statement: “Be sequential but not consequential. Do not create consequences for yourself”.

The lives of initiates give us a right example of causeless action. In their doing things, there is only doing, because something is to be done, and this is done in tune with nature. There is no personal motive, neither wanting nor non wanting. Pure experience is not causal, there is no 'why' or 'because'. If we ask a child why it eats honey, the child smiles because it has not yet developed the causal psyche. It might say, 'Because I like it'. That's all. As adults, we have many reasons for everything; it means that we are not yet ready just to experience. Pure experience has no reasons.

First of all, we have to make sure that the motive of our action is the well-being of all. Later, as we progress in meditation, we also drop the motives. When a service is coming from the soul, it brings us joy and there are no claims or assertions. We work more and more impersonal and have no more personal reason to work. This gradually weakens the causal body more and more and it dissolves itself after a reasonable time.

The causal body is an envelope of the soul; it spreads much light, but then we realize that it is not what we are in essence. We are the origin of the temple, and the temple is only a means by which we work.

Therefore, it is said that as soon as the work is done, the temple is destroyed again. Jesus Christ said, “I can destroy this temple and rebuild it in three days”. He did not mean the temple made of stone, but the causal body, the temple of Solomon, and he knows that he can rebuild it if necessary, by his will.

After having dissolved the golden body and the diamond body, we also leave the separative identity. We are in a state where we experience the light all around us. This is such a radiant light that it is no light at all - we cannot define it by any colour. There exists no individual at this plane, and all that remains is a unit of a multidimensional laboratory, which through us pursues its own goals. The Lord Himself sits in us with us as His body. As a unit of consciousness, we are full of joy about it.

Sources used: K.P. Kumar: The Mysteries of Sagittarius. Notes from seminars. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India