________________
astral and etheric counterpart of the physical body. It has almost the same shape and dimensions as its flesh and blood vehicle, although it is capable of expansion and contraction. It has been said in the Taittiriya Upanishad (Brahmandavalli:2):
तस्माद्दा एतस्मादन्नरसमयात् । अन्योऽन्तर आत्मा प्राणमयः। तेनैष पूर्णः। स वा एष पुरुषविध एव ।
तस्य पुरुषविधताम् । अन्वयं पुरुषविधः ॥ Verily, besides this physical body, which is made of the essence of the food, there is another, inner self comprised of vital energy by which this physical self is filled. Just as the fleshly body is in the form of a person, accordingly this vital self is in the shape of a person. Clairvoyants see the pranic body as a coloured, luminous cloud or aura around the body, radiating from within the physical body, like the sun flaring from behind the eclipsing moon. Researchers working with a Kirlian high voltage apparatus have obtained similar effects on film. The pranic body is subtler than the physical body and takes longer to disintegrate. This is why the energy field of an amputated limb can be felt for quite some time. As demonstrated in experiments with Kirlian photography, this matrix of energy also allows a damaged part to assume its original shape when healed.
The third sheath is manomaya kosha, the mental dimension. The level of experience is the conscious mind, which holds I he two grosser koshas, annamaya and pranamaya, together as an integrated whole. It is the bridge between the outer and inner worlds, conveying the experiences and sensations of the external world to the intuitive body, and the influences of the causal and intuitive bodies to the gross body.
The fourth sheath is vijnanamaya kosha, the psychic level of experience, which relates to the subconscious and unconscious mind. This sphere pervades manomaya kosha, but is subtler than it. Vijnanamaya kosha is the link between (he individual and universal mind. Inner knowledge comes
21
