Shariram (The Body) — Key Teachings
- The word ‘Sharira’ comes from ‘Shri’ (to decay/dissolve) — that which decays is the body. ‘Deha’ comes from ‘Dah’ (to burn) — the body is consumed by Prana Vayu. The Supreme Guru Sri Swami Shivananda Paramahamsa declared: Prana Vayu itself is the Deha.
- Though the body is impermanent, it is the essential instrument (Upadi/Upakarana) for knowing the eternal Parabrahman. Hence the body is the most necessary and most sacred thing in creation. ‘Shariram Adyam Khalu Dharma Sadhanam’ — the body is the primary instrument for Dharma.
- In Vedanta, the body is described as impermanent, inert, and impure — but these descriptions are for the Yoga-arudha (one who has already transcended the body through Yoga), NOT for the Sadhaka. For the Sadhaka, preserving the body is absolutely essential.
- Uttara Gita (4:27): The body is the temple. The eternal Jiva within is God. Through Yoga-sadhana, casting away the garland of Ajnana, one must worship with the attitude of ‘So-Ham’ (I am That). Damaging the temple-body is declared sinful (Bible).
- Vara Upanishad (5:4): Pranayama practised day and night without interruption → Jatharagni (digestive fire) grows → food digests easily → Rasa (nutritive essence) grows → all seven Dhatus (bodily tissues) are nourished and grow → Jnana arises in the body → all sins of crores of births are burned away.
- The Seven Dhatus (Sapta Dhatu) are: 1. Charma (skin), 2. Rakta (blood), 3. Mamsa (flesh), 4. Medas (fat/marrow), 5. Asthi (bones), 6. Majja (bone marrow), 7. Shukla (vital essence/Ojas). All are purified and strengthened by Yoga-Agni through Pranayama.
- Yoga-Agni (Yoga fire) gradually purifies the body made of seven Dhatus (Yoga Shikhopanishad 1:10, 1:6, 1:7; Shvetashvatara Upanishad 2:12). The result: no disease, no old age, no death-fear, no grief. The body becomes Vajra-Sharira (diamond body), indestructible like vajra.
- Hanuman had limbs like vajra (Vajranga / Bajrangbali) — proving he was a Mahayogi who had purified his body through Yoga-Agni. His army was called Vajranga Dala (Bajrang Dal) for the same reason.
- Uttara Gita (3:21): Yoga-Agni not only benefits the Yogi but liberates ten generations of ancestors and ten generations of descendants from the Yogi’s family line. This demonstrates the social and karmic power of Yoga.
- The Rental Car Analogy: We treat this rare body like a rented vehicle — filling it with food-fuel, driving it on the roads of sense-pleasures, collecting the rent of Samsara, then abandoning it at death to rent another. ‘Tyajan Deham’ in Vedanta means transcending the three bodies (gross, subtle, causal), not physical death.
- Bhagavad Gita (6:17): Balanced food, recreation, sleep, and activity — a Yogi who maintains this balance attains freedom from suffering (Dukhaha). The Yogi does not abandon food — Yoga-sadhana determines how much is needed.
- Garuda Purana: Village, land, wealth, home, and karmas — all can be regained. But this sacred human body — Mahaa-durlabham — cannot be obtained again and again. This birth must be made spiritually worthwhile.
Key Concepts Glossary — English
Sharira: Body; from ‘Shri’ — that which decays and dissolves. One of two Sanskrit words for the physical body.
Deha: Body; from ‘Dah’ — that which is consumed/burned by Prana Vayu. Sri Swami Shivananda declared: Prana Vayu itself is the Deha.
Prana Vayu: The life-force breath; the Jiva-Shakti that forms, maintains, and ultimately consumes the body. Separate from atmospheric Oxygen.
Parabrahman: The Supreme Absolute; the Eternal Reality that the body, as impermanent instrument, is meant to help us realise.
Shariram Adyam Khalu Dharma Sadhanam: ‘The body is indeed the primary instrument for Dharma (righteous living) and spiritual realisation.’ Classical Dharmic maxim.
Achara: Conduct; discipline; whatever sustains and upholds the body for spiritual practice. ‘Acharat Prathamah Vedah’ — conduct is foremost in the Vedas.
Ashashvatam: Impermanent; one of the Vedantic descriptions of the body. Valid for the Yoga-arudha, but not a reason for the Sadhaka to neglect the body.
Yoga-arudha: One who has ascended through Yoga and achieved the goal; for such a one, the body’s impermanence is a lived reality, not a concept.
Sadhaka: Spiritual aspirant; one who is still on the path of Yoga. For the Sadhaka, the body must be preserved and purified.
Deha-devaalaya: The body as temple (Deha = body, Devaalaya = temple). Uttara Gita 4:27. The eternal Jiva within is the God of this temple.
So-Ham: ‘He am I’ / ‘I am That’; the mantra of non-dual realisation to be practised as worship within the body-temple.
Jatharagni: The digestive fire; strengthened by Pranayama. When Jatharagni grows, food is perfectly digested, Rasa builds, and all Dhatus are nourished.
Rasa: Nutritive essence of food; the primary product of perfect digestion. When Rasa grows, all seven Dhatus grow.
Sapta Dhatu: Seven bodily tissues: Charma (skin), Rakta (blood), Mamsa (flesh), Medas (fat), Asthi (bones), Majja (marrow), Shukla (vital essence/Ojas).
Yoga-Agni: The fire of Yoga; the transformative spiritual fire generated through Pranayama that gradually purifies the body’s seven Dhatus and burns all accumulated sins.
Vajra-Sharira: Diamond body; the indestructible, purified body achieved through Yoga-Agni practice. Not damaged by sticks or swords.
Vajranga / Bajrangbali: Hanuman’s epithets meaning ‘diamond-limbed.’ Proof, according to this text, that Hanuman was a great Mahayogi who had achieved Vajra-Sharira.
Deha-traya: The three bodies: Sthula (gross/physical — Jagrat state), Sukshma (subtle/energy — Svapna/dream state), Karana (causal/seed — Sushupti/deep sleep state).
Turiya: The ‘Fourth’ state; beyond the three bodies and their states; the state of pure Atma-consciousness at the Bhrumadhya. The goal of Yoga.
Tyajan Deham / Tyaktva Deham: ‘Abandoning the body’ in Vedantic texts — correctly understood as transcending the three bodies (Deha-traya) to reach Turiya, NOT physical death.
Ashaneti Annam: ‘Prana itself becomes food’; the advanced stage where the Yogi is sustained directly by inner Prana rather than physical food.
Yukta: Balanced, measured, harmonious; the Gita’s term for the right measure of food, recreation, sleep, and activity required for Yoga.
Mahaa-durlabham: Exceedingly rare and difficult to obtain; the Garuda Purana’s description of the human body — the rarest gift in creation.
Vasana-traya: The three desire-tendencies (Vasanas) driving Samsaric experience; the ‘rent’ collected while using the body-vehicle.
Reflective Questions & Answers — English
Q1. Why does this chapter say the body is ‘most necessary and most sacred’ when Vedanta often describes it as impure and impermanent?
A: This is one of the most important distinctions in this chapter. Vedanta’s harsh descriptions of the body — impermanent, inert, impure — are spoken from the vantage point of the Yoga-arudha: the one who has already transcended the body through sustained Yoga practice and achieved the goal. For that person, these descriptions are a lived reality. But for the Sadhaka who is still on the path — to hear these descriptions and then neglect or abuse the body — is a serious spiritual mistake. The body is the only instrument available for the entire journey. Without it, nothing else in spiritual practice is possible.
Q2. What is the difference between Sharira and Deha, and what does Sri Swami Shivananda’s declaration mean?
A: ‘Sharira’ comes from ‘Shri’ (to decay) — it is named for its eventual dissolution. ‘Deha’ comes from ‘Dah’ (to burn) — it is named for the process of being continuously consumed by the Prana Vayu. Sri Swami Shivananda’s declaration that ‘Prana Vayu itself is the Deha’ is a profound statement: the body is not just a physical structure maintained by breath — the Prana is the very life-force that both creates and continuously burns/maintains the body. When the Prana leaves, the ‘Deha’ ceases to exist as a living entity. This reveals the intimate relationship between Prana and the body that Pranayama directly works with.
Q3. Explain the Vara Upanishad’s teaching on how Pranayama nourishes all seven bodily tissues.
A: The chain described in the Vara Upanishad (5:4) is: Pranayama practised continuously → Jatharagni (digestive fire) increases → food is digested perfectly and with ease → Rasa (the refined nutritive essence of digested food) increases → as Rasa increases, all seven Dhatus (bodily tissues: skin, blood, flesh, fat, bones, marrow, vital essence/Ojas) are progressively nourished and strengthened. As all seven Dhatus grow in this purified way, Jnana (spiritual knowledge) arises naturally in the body. And simultaneously, all sins accumulated over crores of births are burned away. The body itself becomes the vehicle of liberation.
Q4. What is Yoga-Agni and what does a ‘Vajra-Sharira’ mean practically?
A: Yoga-Agni is the spiritual fire generated within the body through sustained Pranayama practice. As Prana is directed upward through Sushumna, the inner heat rises and gradually purifies each of the seven Dhatus — just as coal, when subjected to intense heat and pressure, becomes diamond (vajra). The resulting body — Vajra-Sharira — is physically described in Yoga Shikhopanishad (1:10) as one where diseases are destroyed and the body is not damaged even by blows from a stick or sword. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad (2:12) adds: no disease, no old age, no fear of death. This is not metaphorical — it describes the actual physical transformation produced by sustained Yoga practice.
Q5. How does Hanuman prove to be a great Yogi according to this chapter?
A: The text points to Hanuman’s epithets as evidence: ‘Vajranga’ means ‘one with diamond-limbed body’ and ‘Vajranga Dala’ (Bajrang Dal) was his army — named for the same quality. In Yoga Shikhopanishad (1:10), the Vajra-Sharira (diamond body) is specifically described as the result of Yoga-Agni burning and purifying the seven Dhatus. Since Hanuman possessed limbs like vajra (diamond), the text concludes that Hanuman must have been a great Mahayogi who had fully purified all seven Dhatus through Yoga-Agni. His great strength, endurance, and indestructibility were not miracles — they were the direct result of Yoga practice.
Q6. What is the Rental Car Analogy and what spiritual lesson does it teach?
A: The analogy compares the human body to a rented vehicle: we fill in ‘fuel’ (food), drive it on the ‘roads’ of sense-object pleasures (the visible world as experienced through the senses), and collect ‘rent’ (the pleasures and pains of Samsara driven by the three Vasanas — desire-tendencies). And at death we leave this rental vehicle behind, planning to rent another one in the next birth. The lesson is stark: we are treating the most precious, rarest instrument in all creation — the human body — as a disposable rental vehicle for collecting Samsaric experiences. The body’s true purpose is liberation, not pleasure-collection.
Q7. What does ‘Tyajan Deham’ really mean in Vedanta, and why is this misunderstood?
A: ‘Tyajan Deham’ literally translates as ‘abandoning/leaving the body’ — and this leads many to interpret it as meaning physical death. However, the text clarifies that it correctly means transcending the Deha-traya (the three bodies: gross, subtle, and causal) and their corresponding states of consciousness (Jagrat/waking, Svapna/dream, and Sushupti/deep sleep) — and thereby reaching the Turiya (Fourth) state at the Bhrumadhya. This is achieved while still alive in the physical body through Yoga practice. The Sadhaka is not supposed to physically die, starve, or abandon food — but to transcend the identification with the three bodies through the direct experience of the Turiya state.
Q8. Why does Yoga-Agni benefit not just the practitioner but ten generations before and after them?
A: The Uttara Gita (3:21) makes this extraordinary claim: that through Yoga practice which properly digests food through Yoga-Agni, ten generations of the Yogi’s ancestors and ten generations of their descendants are liberated from their lineage. The underlying principle is that the accumulated Karmas of a family lineage are held in the subtle body and are carried forward generation to generation. When one member of the lineage achieves the purification of the Sapta Dhatu through Yoga-Agni, the karmic debt of the entire lineage is addressed. This is analogous to the concept that one truly enlightened person’s liberation benefits all those connected to them.
Q9. How does the Gita’s teaching on Yukta-ahara (measured food) fit into the path of Yoga?
A: Bhagavad Gita (6:17) instructs: ‘Yukta-ahara vihara’ — balanced and measured in food and recreation; ‘Yukta-cheshtasya karmasu’ — balanced in activities; ‘Yukta svapna-aabodhasya’ — balanced in sleep and wakefulness. The prefix ‘Yukta’ (harmonious, measured, right amount) is key. The Gita does not prescribe fasting or ascetic deprivation — it prescribes balance. This is essential for Yoga practice: an underfed body lacks Prana for Pranayama; an overfed body is too heavy for the subtle work of Pranayama. The right measure — determined by Yoga-sadhana itself — is the Gita’s practical prescription.
Q10. Why does the Garuda Purana say the human body cannot be regained, and what is the implication for daily life?
A: The Garuda Purana contrasts the human body with everything else that can be lost and regained: towns, fields, wealth, homes, and even the fruits of past karmas — all of these can be re-obtained or re-experienced in future lives. But ‘Na Shariram punah punah’ — this specific human body, in this specific configuration, at this specific point in the soul’s journey — cannot be obtained again and again. It is Mahaa-durlabham: exceedingly rare. The implication is immediate and practical: every moment of this life spent on anything other than the spiritual work of Yoga — the actual purpose for which this body was given — is an irreplaceable loss. This birth must be made spiritually worthwhile.