18 – Tattva Bodha: What is the Causal Body? — Beginningless Ignorance (Karana Sharira)
Summary:
Discourse 18 answers what is the Causal Body (karana sharira), one response for rebirth.
Source: Tattva Bodha
Verse: (What is the Causal Body?)
kāraṇa śarīaṃ kim?
anirvācya anādi avidyā-rūpaṃ
śarīra-dvayasya kāraṇa-mātraṃ sat-svarūpā-jñānaṃ,
nirvikalpaka-rūpaṃ yadasti tat-kāraṇa-śarīram
That which is inexplicable, beginningless, in the form of ignorance, the sole cause of the two bodies (gross and subtle), the cause of ignorance of one’s own true nature, and is free from duality.
BASIC EXPLANATION OF CAUSAL BODY:
- If Subtle/Gross have come in time, there must be a cause. Everything in universe is connected via cause-effect right to big bang.
- Nirvikalpaka-rupam (unmanifest): It contains unmanifest causes (punya/papa) which bring to manifestation your physical/subtle body.
- IGNORANCE:
- Why Are The Unmanifest Causes Present In The Causal Body?
- Due to Avidya (ignorance). Reason you're born is you have ignorance of your true nature, thus think “I am” good as body-mind > dissatisfaction > perform actions > 2 results: dṛṣṭa (seen) & adṛṣṭa-phala (unseen results). There are countless unseen results collected in Causal Body, which will manifest in the future.
- What Is Ignorance?
- It's impossible understand “ignorance”, because ignorance is always of SOMETHING (EG: ignorance of atma). Ignorance of ___, causes problems until it's removed. It's opposed to knowledge, thus only knowledge can remove it. It's the cause of jiva, because jiva is product of ignorance.
- What Is Ontological Reality Of Ignorance?
- If it's real (sat), then it can't go. But it does go in wake of knowledge. Is it non-existent (asat)? No, else wouldn't have any problems. Hence it's sat-asatbhyām-anirvacanīyam: can't say it's either sat or asat. In other words, ignorance is mithyā. Meaning it depends on Awareness. Ignorance is another object in Awareness. For example, “I'm am aware that my mind has ignorance of flying an airplane, or I am aware that I feel incomplete”.
- When Did Ignorance Begin?
- Anadi-avidya-rupam: The unmanifest causes that make up your Causal Body, didn't suddenly start once upon a time. They were there since time immemorial. This is true with anything in creation, as creation is cyclical; not linear.
- Logic why ignorance never began:
- If ignorance began at some point, that means before ignorance came, there was knowledge. But knowledge means “absence of ignorance”. Ignorance can't come from “absence of ignorance”.
- If ignorance began at some point of time, it means before ignorance, there was nothing. However ignorance is always in reference to something. Since nothing and something are opposing, you can't have something come out of nothing.
- Why Are The Unmanifest Causes Present In The Causal Body?
- Logic to understand I am not Causal Body:
- Action is done by subtle/gross. Result is experienced by subtle/gross. How can result of action be Me when it wasn't done by “Me”?
- Ignorance is known to Me, thus can't be ignorance.
INTERMEDIARY EXPLANATION OF CAUSAL BODY:
- Brahman enjoys a creative power (māyā) capable of manifesting the universe. Both, brahman and maya are inseparable and without beginning — meaning both always were, are and will continue to be. This creative power is all knowledge, and all power, from which all laws and forms manifest. Meaning each jiva (living entity) will have a miniscule portion of maya (the total Causal of the manifest universe). So naturally, no jiva will know everything, meaning jiva will have ignorance about self and world.
- A simple analogy to help explain why your individual Causal Body is defined as “Ignorance”: Suppose you have the knowledge and power, and are given the right materials to put together a donkey, horse and a human being. This means you have knowledge of all three. In other words the creator must have knowledge of whatever is created. However, from standpoint of the “human being” you created — he or she naturally doesn't know the workings of his or her own body, nor the body of a donkey and a horse. So the human being you created, has to observe your creation — be it their own body or body of a donkey and horse, and make some conclusions as to how it works and what it's made of. The human being you created will remain ignorant of it's own body, including of the horse and donkey — until he or she goes on a pursuit of looking into the subject matter. Similarly, the jiva can remain eternally ignorant of it's own body, or nature of self — until he or she begins an investigation.
- SUMMARY OF why Causal Body is called “Ignorance”: Because it causes Ignorance of Self. Why causes Ignorance? Because individual Causal Body is not the TOTAL Causal Body (defined as: all knowledge). So from standpoint of TOTAL Causal Body, it is not called ignorance, but a creative power (māyā). Causal Body is only called ignorance when it's in reference to one individual.
- anādi: Causal Body is beginningless. Why? Because sat-cit and maya are beginningless. Meaning individual is also beginningless.
- śarīra-dvayasya kāraṇa-mātram: Individual Causal Body is cause of the Subtle & Gross Body. How so?
- I never figured out I’m full/complete (ānanda) due to ignorance (not being given total knowledge of everything).
- To fulfill myself, I engaged in actions, thus got enmeshed in worldly endeavors.
- My endeavors, in form of actions, produced appropriate and inappropriate actions.
- Appropriate and inappropriate actions had 2 kinds of results: drsta (immediate feedback) and adrsta (delayed consequences).
- The adrsta goes into the Causal Body.
- Upon physical death, portion of adrsta is taken from the Causal Body, and determines the kind of personality, body and parentage the next jiva will have.
- New gross and subtle body is born to continue enjoying or suffering the adrsta (results of jiva's past actions). And they will be mixture of punya (pleasant/welcoming experiences that produce happiness), and papa (unpleasant experiences that produce pain).
- What problem does Causal Body create? Sat-svarūpa-ajñānam: Veils my nature as sat (that which is ever true, invariable and eternal).
Homework:
- Demonstrate how you do not take on attributes of the gross-body, subtle-body and causal-body? One sentence for each.
- EG: In class we gave one of dozens of ways to show you are not the gross body, such as: if a hand were to be cut, suddenly you'd experience “I AM” 10% less. If I was gross body, then I would have full awareness of my gross-body in the dream. Yet from standpoint of the dream, I (as the mind), am still available — but my gross body is not.
Keywords:
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Credit for help in Tattva Bodha to Chinmaya Mission's Swami Advayananda, and Arsha Vidya's Swami Dayananda.
Recorded 24 Sept, 2023
Hi Andre,
under “ignorance” you say “ignorance It’s opposed to knowledge, thus only knowledge can remove it.”
In the Bhagavad Gita 12/ 3-4 – Swami Dayananda Saraswati comments that” svarupa-caitanyam na ajnana-virodhi”, consciousness, which is the nature of atma, is not opposed to ignorance – neither self ignorance nor any other ignorance.(…) WHAT IS OPPOSED TO IGNORANCE IS VRTTI JNANA, knowledge that takes place in the form of a vrtti.
I understood it that ignorance is only to removed through a thought (vrtti) – the form of knowledge (mithya-objectification takes place only through the mind-capacity-to reveal an object. (…) But the thought is seen because of atma (self-evident).
Means you need the mind for knowing – but atma/brahman is the only one who reveals the ignorance because all is seen/witnessed in brahman? So there is no “real” opposition (ignorance) to the truth?
“svarupa-caitanyam na ajnana-virodhi” is different context.
Consciousness lights up ignorance (IE: “In presence of self-evident I, there is ignorance in my mind about what is the nature of I”).
Consciousness also lights up something which is fully grasped (IE: “In presence of self-evident I, there is understanding in my mind about what is the nature I”).
So in above context, Consciousness is neither opposed to knowledge of a thing, nor ignorance of a thing. In presence of the conscious being (self-evident I), both knowledge and ignorance are revealed. Revealed to whom? To you. What is this “you”?” The conscious being who is conscious to ignorance or a thing and knowledge of a thing.
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However when we say “ignorance It’s opposed to knowledge, thus only knowledge can remove it”, that statement applies to one who is attempting to understand the nature of I. Just the mere spiritual search implies “I don’t know; I have ignorance about that which I’m trying to understand”. So naturally, one needs to pursue knowledge which specifically deals with nature of I.
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Means you need the mind for knowing – but atma/brahman is the only one who reveals the ignorance because all is seen/witnessed in brahman? So there is no “real” opposition (ignorance) to the truth?
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Correct. However it’s more nuanced. While ignorant, Atma/brahman is mixed up with the mind. I am as good as my thoughts and my ignorance. So from standpoint of one who is still trying to get it, since ignorance is in their mind, they need to give that SAME mind knowledge which opposes the ignorance.
Once understanding takes place, only then is this statement (“there is no real opposition to the truth”) absolutely true for Me here-and-now, and not just something that’s written in scriptures and stored in memory.
Thank you.
Giving Viveka to Dhīḥ and generous respect to my honorable Teacher, Andre…
The presented gender-caste system is in place only to allow “boys to be boys”. Adult boys need someone to care for them so they can be “enlightened” (passive women to clean, cook, caregive, and provide pleasure). Boys being boys requires relegating those with easily identifiable superficial attributes (skin color, gender, facial features, any physical difference) into servitude to them. Monasteries are notorious for also using young boys for these duties.
Religious tyranny is pretending God is the oppressor to half the population (the boys are just following orders, ma’am). Pretending God forced those with creative fertility into a rigid unyielding identity to their “small & limited” physical & subtle bodies – both temporary.
And then, forcing women & young boys to sweep all Advaita Vedanta Science under the rug – insisting this self-serving dehumanization remains unchanging (women always pick up dirty socks) in this ever-changing world (more & more dirtied socks to be picked up). And still, illogically, tyrannized by God “him”self as a LAW, a Newtonian FORCE (like gravity). The last two years in US have been a bloodbath of male hubris-imposed female brutality. With the belief that women deserve everything they get. This is psychotic, not Godly.
This is obviously poor logic. A lack of science. And self-serving bias. It is only justification for evil acts. Evidence of a profound lack of self-knowledge. A thrumming of the male nose at an “equitable God”. Self is not gendered, silly. We are ALL Yen & ALL Yang. The story of sperm falling on the lowly egg is allegory for One Consciousness. Not an excuse to oppress another.
To be yang w/o yen is toxic. While some bodies can fight off bears and other bodies create new life. ALL bodies care for and nurture the new life and the life to whom they are partnered. Everything else is junk-Vedanta.
Waves do not have half of all waves declared “defective” by God, separated from the very ocean of God. Oppressed w/o autonomy. This was your lesson to all women that must be forced into molds oppressed into passive toxicity.
There is not an instant when the wave is not pure ocean water. Every instant Female I AM is pure Brahman.
Yet there remains an instant yet to be – when the “silly self-serving sages & their caste system” sees the beautiful creative fertile nurturing body of women as a Strength and Glory of Brahman. Men feel only their “small” envy and the desire to possess female power. Throw off the small and appreciate ALL God has designed.
In Genesis 1: 1-3, Elohim first separates Humanity from consciousness. The very next separation is gender. The first remains unhealed without the 2nd. Jesus had 5 Marys. Marys are only in the Gospel (except one short dismissal from unenlightened Paul). Mary translates to “Their Rebellion”.
Jesus was born of their rebellion, their rebellion held positions of authority in His mission. Their rebellion stayed at the cross long after the men fled. Their rebellion recognized the risen Christ without physical proof. Jesus promised their rebellion that it would never be taken from them.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for the lessons
Hi Janet, what’s being said in your message is:
Gender-based religious and social systems are being used as tools for male dominance. These systems wrongly use God to justify limiting women’s roles, contradicting spiritual teachings of unity. This approach is seen as illogical and biased, with true spirituality supposedly seeing beyond gender. Balanced masculinity needs feminine qualities too. Oppressing women doesn’t align with the concept of a fair God, and female creativity should be celebrated, not controlled. Religious texts are interpreted as actually supporting women’s freedom and resistance to oppression.
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Here’s more examples that demonstrate unequal woman rights in respect to education:
1) In Rig Veda (oldest Veda), long before modern India came into being, in the Vedic culture; there was no forced or suggested marriage to a particular man (as still practiced in India today). Woman could select their partner.
2) In the later Vedic and post-Vedic periods, women’s access to formal Vedic education became more limited.
3) Ancient Greece: In Athens, formal education was generally reserved for boys. Girls were typically taught domestic skills at home.
4) Medieval Europe: Most universities were closed to women. Education for girls, if any, was often limited to basic reading and religious instruction.
5) Colonial America: Higher education was largely unavailable to women until the 19th century. Harvard, founded in 1636, didn’t admit women until 1943.
6) Taliban rule in Afghanistan (1996-2001): Girls were banned from attending school, and women were prohibited from working outside the home or pursuing education.
7) Saudi Arabia: Until recently, women were barred from many fields of study, especially those leading to careers where they might interact with men. While this has improved, gender segregation in education still exists.