I like all the interpretations, however there is only one body in which there are many planes - including those of the astral, physical, and causal. If by body, you mean the ‘self’ or the space you occupy in the universe.
I think a body is more than something that takes up space. A rock takes up space, but it’s not a body. It doesn’t grow or heal or die. I think a body is a vessel of life. By that definition, a plant is a body, as is the physical structure of an animal or a human being.
Suhas Tambe defined the astral body as the life of the body that leaves at the time of death, but why is it called a body? In Christianity, it is called the soul, and it is not considered to be a body.
It might be useful to consider the various types of physical bodies that we know. The mobile versus the immobile, and the furry or feathery beasts as opposed to the naked ape. We might think of our bodies as a type of clothing. It is not so far-fetched to think of all of the levels of being as layers of clothing that can be changed or removed or added to.
@ Asuri
Yes, I agree. But the poster asked “how many bodies do we have?” By we, I take it to mean you, us, me - individually. And ‘space’ is more than physical occupation, it’s the area I - me, myself, and I - use.
My sense is that “I” have one body. If my physical body dies, the matter is re-integrated and re-used. Perhaps this happens with the other ‘stuff’ that made Me - the soul, astral(ity) etc.
The question was really about what are the real traditional teachings of yoga on the matter. I would say its not really a yoga teaching at all. The teaching of koshas is a traditional teaching, but it comes from the Upanishads. That’s Vedanta, not yoga. There’s the teaching the subtle body from Samkhya philosophy. Again, a traditional teaching, but not yoga. Then there’s the teaching of the astral body, which as far as I know is not a traditional teaching. If it is, I hope someone will correct me and tell me where it comes from.
Looks strange that how many bodies one can have , one can have only one body. Soul is not body that is soul which is unseen, untouched,unknown.
There are various chakara’s in Yoga and, if you work hard in meditation techniques then all the chakaras will become active. There are seven chakaras in human body(this is believed).
Once all 7 are in active position then some one qualifies for Moksha a state after that someone get rid of cycle of repeated death and reincarnation or rebirth.
I agree that Yoga Sutra do not speak of “3 bodies” or “astral and causal bodies” but there is abundant reference to parallel terms.
In Book I/ sutra 45/ sūkṣma-viṣayatvaṁ cāliṇga-pary-avasānam /which translates as, ?the gross leads into the subtle and the subtle leads in progressive stages to that state of spiritual being called Pradhāna?.
The progressive stages of gross to subtle correspond with the guna dynamics, the involutionary stages of consciousness and the bodies/ koshas version. In Book II/ sutra19/ viśeṣāviśeṣa-liṇgamātrāliṇgāni guṇa-parvāṇi/ which means ?the states of the guṇa are experienced on all three planes and beyond.?
Any experiencing needs a body as the medium. The experiencing of ?vishesh? where all three gunas are present, but tamas (inertia) dominates is a state experienced by the physical body. The second, ?avishesha? experiencing is where rajas (excitement) dominates at the level of astral body that is progressively more subtle. The third, ?lingmatra? experiencing is with sattva (revealing) is dominant and almost by itself, in the causal body that is extremely subtle. Alinga, where all three gunas are in equilibrium, is the fourth state of pure consciousness and no experiencing.
Use of the word body is only to convey that they are not the Soul, otherwise astral and causal are subtle states of consciousness. Upon the physical death, rest of the package survives in the astral body waiting to be re-born if karma necessitates. If not, there is a death of the astral body leaving causal body behind and when even that dies arrives the fourth state of pure consciousness.
So you essentially admit that you will not find any use of the words astral or causal in any traditional yoga text. I think the translations you’ve given for these two sutras are greatly over simplified and maybe a little self-serving, but I understand you need to justify your use of these terms, which I view as little more than pop culture.
Asuri,
Correction. It is almost standard in Vedic scripts to use sthul shareer (physical body), sukshma shareer (astral body) and karan shareer (causal body). I wrote that ‘Yoga Sutra does not specifically use these terms’; but it does imply such terms or concepts unquestionably. (Examples of implied concepts are reincarnation, evolution etc. Also see the table below.)
It will be more valuable for you to point out which part of my interpretation is extraneous than to reach a hasty and easy conclusion of their self-serving nature or pop culture. I know Sanskrit and have read most of the standard interpretations. It is my opinion that some writers have chosen a literal translation of many sutras. Such literal translations present incomplete jigsaw puzzles which appeal to some writers eager to discover a mystique of Eastern philosophy. Yoga Sutra is intended to be a hardcore guidebook for a seeker and not a philosophy book for an academician. Simplicity is therefore intended, not superimposed by me.
Let me give one classic example. Book 1, sutras 21 & 22:
[B]Original Sanskrit/[/B] Tivra = intense, samvega = urge, asannah = quite near
[B]Commonly used Literal Translation/[/B] Those who have an intense urge attain (Samadhi) very soon
[B]A simplified yet authentic translation/[/B] Attainment of (spiritual consciousness) is rapid for one who seeks it wholeheartedly with an intense urge
[B]Original Sanskrit/[/B] mrudu = mild, madhyama = medium, adhimatra = extremely strong, tvat = due to,
[B]Commonly used Literal Translation/[/B] With the intensity of urge rising through the mild, medium and strong conditions, Samadhi can be achieved sooner.
[B]A simplified yet authentic translation/[/B] How rapid depends on whether the practice is intense, moderate or gentle …
22 (continued…)
[B]Original Sanskrit/[/B] tato api = also, more than that, visesh = special, peculiar
[B]Commonly used Literal Translation/[/B] (Above translations ignore these 2 inconvenient words, “tato api” and “visesh” since they can’t place them. Instead they add ‘samadhi can be achieved sooner’ borrowing it from sutra 21. Patanjali’s precise words never get repeated. )
[B]A simplified yet authentic translation/[/B] … yet, more than that, there is another special way.
Patanjali is simply giving a pointer to another known reference in Bhagvdgeeta that instead of intense urge and practice, one can be born with Bhakti, a total devotion to Ishvara. That is another concept implied in Yoga Sutra.
I’m not going to engage in academic discussions of the sutras and how they should be translated. I will say only that every occurrence of the word suksma that I have seen has been consistently translated as ‘subtle’, not astral, so I’m not buying the correction. You want to talk about writers eager to discover a mystique about Eastern philosophy, I think using words like astral body and causal body falls into that category.
The reason that different literature mentions a different number of ‘bodies’ is because they classify the bodies differently, but they are aiming at the same concept: reality is multidimensional. This means every body in reality whether it be the human being, an insect, a plant or a rock exists across a spectrum of reality spanning many dimensions. It has a counterpart on every level/dimension. Each level is a higher vibrational density than the other. According to classical Samkhya there are 7*7 or 49 levels of vibrational density of original matter. Of these 49 levels there are 7 distinct planes of reality, where matter behaves in a coherent and predictable way.
Classical Samkhya does not go into detail on what those 7 planes of reality are, but more details can be found in Vedanta and Puranic literature. In Vedanta the emphasis is more on the human body and it is broken down into 5 main dimensions. In other words there really is no such thing as many bodies, there is only one body but that body has many dimensions. They are:
The physical or space and time dimension
The energy or quantum dimension
The mental or information dimension
The intellectual or process dimensiom
The bliss or consciousness dimension
These 5 dimensions are classified in Vedanta according to 3 states of consciousness and 3 states of matter: waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep and gross, subtle and causal.
From what I have read there are 7 major chakras in the body. There are smaller ones in various other parts through out the body. I have found a profound difference in my life when I work to keep the 7 major chakras clear. I think this practice can be an important part of our health.
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;68239]The reason that different literature mentions a different number of ‘bodies’ is because they classify the bodies differently, but they are aiming at the same concept: reality is multidimensional. This means every body in reality whether it be the human being, an insect, a plant or a rock exists across a spectrum of reality spanning many dimensions. It has a counterpart on every level/dimension. Each level is a higher vibrational density than the other. According to classical Samkhya there are 7*7 or 49 levels of vibrational density of original matter. Of these 49 levels there are 7 distinct planes of reality, where matter behaves in a coherent and predictable way.
Classical Samkhya does not go into detail on what those 7 planes of reality are, but more details can be found in Vedanta and Puranic literature. In Vedanta the emphasis is more on the human body and it is broken down into 5 main dimensions. In other words there really is no such thing as many bodies, there is only one body but that body has many dimensions. They are:
The physical or space and time dimension
The energy or quantum dimension
The mental or information dimension
The intellectual or process dimensiom
The bliss or consciousness dimension
These 5 dimensions are classified in Vedanta according to 3 states of consciousness and 3 states of matter: waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep and gross, subtle and causal.[/QUOTE]
Although I have not read any of the texts cited, this is my sense of the body. Each dimension can be subdivided infinitely, I am sure.
Wouldn’t it be a bummer, though, if all this great thinking was for naught and all we really are is a bag of flesh, blood and bone and an overactive imagination? :-o 
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;68239] According to classical Samkhya there are 7*7 or 49 levels of vibrational density of original matter. Of these 49 levels there are 7 distinct planes of reality, where matter behaves in a coherent and predictable way.
[/QUOTE]
Talk about wanting to create a mystique about Eastern philosphy, this is complete and utter fiction. It does however show the influence of Samkhya. Every crackpot idea claims to be Samkhya, in order to try to establish some credibility, because it was so widely accepted in the ancient world.
Theory and practice is like chicken and egg; hard to say which comes first. But in Yoga Sutra practice did precede the theory. That makes “astral” and “causal” as mere labels to attached to an experience that however stands as truth. Labels enable sharing of the experience. Where experience is not the basis of exchange only labels prevail. And that is a pointless debate.
Wouldn’t it be a bummer, though, if all this great thinking was for naught and all we really are is a bag of flesh, blood and bone and an overactive imagination?
We are that too, but of course we realise there is more going on within us. Emotions and sensations, thoughts, desires, awarenesss. These are all taking place in different dimensions of reality, but their activity has a counterpart on every level. As far as our current scientific knowledge we are only aware so far of 2 of 5 of the dimensions recognized in the the theory of koshas: space-time and quantum. But the discovery of the quantum dimension is a huge revelation in science. Now we are aware of how information can and does travel outside of space-time and how the same takes place in the brain. We are aware of how networks can be created on the quantum level to transmit and receive information, which is not very far off from the the theory of chakras, nadis, prana.
There is somewhat a nod by scientists today to an informational dimension of reality(3 of 5) where the entire universe exists as pure information, like some kind of cosmic matrix. At this level all past, present and future events exist as one.
The best classification I?ve seen so far comes from Alice Bailey & Theosophy:
Monad
Atma
Buddhi
Manas {Higher Manas and Lower Manas
Astral Body
Physical Body {Etheric and Dense
This chart from A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, Alice Bailey explains the subject:
The Constitution of Man
[QUOTE=YogaPrem;68016]Some sources use the term ‘body’ interchangeably with ‘kosha’ or sheath and generally name five: Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya and Anandamaya…which is probably not much help to a novice but will give you another facet of yoga to explore.
So much to learn and so little time in which to do it.[/QUOTE]
:p:p:p
Here, this may help.
http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/moksh/moksh_09.html Here is another very good resource from Swami Krishnananda that explains the 5 koshas and relates them to the concept of subtle bodies. It follows fairly closely the document in the previous post, but with a few seemingly minor but important differences.
First observation: Swami Krishnananda does not use the term astral body. He calls it the subtle body, but relates it to the Pranamaya, Manomaya, and Vijnanamaya koshas as does the previous post.
Second observation: The koshas are explained in terms of Samkhya principles, up to the point of the Anandamaya kosha. The swami uses words like guna, indriya, manas, and buddhi to to explain how the koshas are constituted. These are all Samkhya terms.
Third observation: The swami correlates the Anandamaya kosha to the causal body, but at this point, the correlation to Samkhya principles stops. Instead, he says that the Anandamaya kosha is composed of Avidya, or ignorance. In my view this is the correct interpretation. The previous document correlates Anandamaya kosha to Buddhi, which I believe is an error.
This is a very important subject indeed.