The Journey

[Dennis Hill]

> Dennis wrote:

>>  The jeeva has four bodies: physical, subtle (prana), causal (sancita &
>>  parabdha karmas, and samskaras), and supra-causal (Brahman).

>  That is interesting. I have never heard of 4 bodies, only 3.
>  Where does this supra-causal body come in?
>
>  Greetings and Om,
>  Vishvarupananda

Hello Swamiji,

Thank you for your question about the supra-causal. Thanks also to
Gummuluru Murthy for his warm welcome, and to Giri for his clarity of
explanation.

My interest in this topic is largely because of a near-death experience
where I was able to observe much of what I thought of as "me," fall away.
Release from the body brought a rush of expansion into the boundaryless
vastness; release from the mind brought a profound sense of immediate
presence with no thoughts cluttering awareness and no memory of ever
having been other than THIS. All that was left was blissful serenity of
just being... infinite and eternal. After returning from this visit
beyond, I began seeking some explanation that was consistent with my
experience. Vedanta, of course, made this more clear to me. Swami
Prabhavananda in his introduction to "The Upanishads: Breath of the
Eternal" says that the truth of the Upanishads are verifiable in our own
experience. As I look back on my experience I see that Vedanta gives me
an authoritative reference for the events of leaving the body. At this
point I am a novice student trying to absorb more of this rich source of
wisdom. Thank you for your tolerance if I should create a
misunderstanding. Which brings us to the point of your question. It was
misleading to speak of the supra-causal as a sheath. I intended it to
mean the eternal aspect of our being, Nirguna Brahman. With this then, we
are in agreement about there being three bodies or sheaths that cover the
supra-causal Absolute.

Gratefully,

-Dennis