Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

VESTURES OF THE SOUL

A symbol of the vehicles of consciousness or bodies in which the spiritual ego functions on the several planes of the soul.

"Self is true; the evermoving world is false; and the migrating souls that seem to be, and do, and suffer, are nothing else than that one and only Self, clothed in the five successive vestures or involucra, the beatific, the cognitional, the sensorial, the vesture of the vital airs, and the nutrimentitious vesture or visible body in the world of sense." - A. E. GOUGH, Phil. of Upanishad, p. 57.

Within the arena of changing phenomena the observant consciousness alone persists; and the reincarnating souls achieve their experience by means of the mechanisms provided on each of the lower planes. These five vestures are:

The Beatific vesture is the “robe of glory" which will be assumed by the soul when the consciousness rises to the buddhic plane.

"Of this blissful vesture tenderness is the head, joy is the right wing, bliss the trunk, and Brahman is the tail, the prop." - Brihad. Upanishad.

"Bird" is a symbol of aspiration, and the Higher Self is the propeller or energiser of the soul.

The Cognitional vesture is the Causal-body on the higher mind plane, through which Truth is known.

"Of this cognitional body faith is the head, justice the right wing, truth the left wing, ecstasy the trunk, the intellect the tail, the prop.” - Ibid.

The Sensorial vesture is the Mental body which receives the impressions made on the senses, and makes them known to the consciousness.

"Of this sensorial body the Yajush is the head, the Rik is the right wing, the Saman the left wing, the Brahmanas the trunk, and the Atharvangirasa the tail, the prop." - Ibid.

This sensorial body is the organ of the lower mind, and its aspiration is energised from within by the spiritual qualities signified.

"Of the body of the vital airs the breath is the head, the pervading air is the right wing, the descending air is the left wing, ether is the trunk, and earth is the tail, the prop. Therefore there is this memorial verse: It is breath that gods breathe, and men and cattle, for the breath is the life of living things. There. fore it is called the life of all. They that meditate upon breath as Brahman live the full life of man." - Ibid.

The Astral body is the body of the "lower vital airs," namely, the instincts, desires, and passions. Desire and Love are the life-energies (breaths) of the soul. Desire is Love inverted. The higher qualities (gods) are energised by Love-divine, and the lower qualities (animals) by desire. All living things have the breath of life, either higher or lower. Only those who exchange the lower for the higher attain to immortality.

"The nutrimentitious body is the outermost vesture of the soul. Man in his visible and earthly body is made up of the materials of food." - GOUGH, p. 76.

The body of flesh is the passive instrument of the soul, and has no life of its own.

"In the Vedanta, the individuated soul, when separated off from the supreme Soul, is regarded as enclosed in a succession of cases (kosa) which envelop it and, as it were, fold one over the other. The first or innermost sheath is called the Vijnana-maya-kosa or 'sheath composed of mere intellection' associated with the organs of perception. This gives the personal soul its first conception of individuality. The second case is called the Mano-maya or 'sheath composed of mind,' associated with the organs of action. This gives the individual soul its powers of thought and judgment. The third envelope is called the Pranamaya or 'breathing sheath,' i.e. the sheath composed of breath and the other vital airs associated with the organs of action. The fourth case is called the Anna-maya. or covering supported by food,' i.e. the corporeal form or gross body; the three preceding sheaths, when combined together, constituting the subtle body. A fifth case, called Ananda-maya or 'that composed of supreme bliss,' is also named, although not admitted by all. It must be regarded as the innermost of all, and ought therefore, when five are enumerated, to be placed before the Vijnana-maya. - MON. WILLIAMS, Indian Wisdom, pp. 123, 4.

The spiritual ego (migrating soul), or spark from the Eternal Fire of Life, when manifesting upon the planes below atma, is enclosed during incarnation in five vehicles of consciousness, which are five human bodies, each composed of the matter of the plane upon which it exists and functions. These bodies do not fold over one another, but usually occupy the same space as the physical body, without interfering with each other. The five bodies are,

The highest or innermost body, that on the buddhic plane, is at present latent in humanity. The first body to manifest is the Causal-body on the plane of the higher mind or higher intellect. The second body is the Mental, on the plane of the lower mind, the plane of action and conflict, knowledge, reason, judgment, and the strife of opposites. The third body is the Astral, on the astral plane, the plane of the desires, passions, and life of the lower nature which produces action on the lower planes. The fourth body is the Physical, on the physical plane: this is the servant (Sudra) of all the other bodies during the periods of incarnation.

"The natives of West Africa are the possessors of no fewer than four spirits each; the Sioux have three souls; some Dakota tribes rejoice in the sacred number four; and the Navajos, according to Dr. Matthews, think of one of their souls as a sort of astral body.' Other tribes of savages are proud of, or troubled with, no fewer than six or seven. Tâoism in China provides each individual with three souls; one remains with the corpse, one with the spirit's tablet, and one is carried off to purgatory. And lest the civilised sceptic scoff at this, he may be asked to remember, not only the threefold designation of the Hebrews, of the animal (nephesh), the human (ruach) and the divine (neshamah) soul, but also Plato's thumos, epithumia, and nous; or the various conscious, subconscious or 'subliminal,' and dual, triple, or quadruple selves of some modern psychologists." - G. T. LADD, Phil. of Religion, Vol. II. p. 488.

See Also

ANDREW
ASTRAL (Body)
BIRD
BREATH
CASTLES
CAUSAL-BODY
CHILDREN OF HORUS
CLASSES
ELEMENTS, FIVE
HEAD
HOUSE (clan)
GODS
INCARNATION (Souls)
JOB
KARANA
MAASEH
MARRIAGE (castes)
NEPHESH
NESHAMAH
QUATERNARY
REINCARNATION
ROBE
RUAH
RULERS (world)
SAHU
SAMKHARA
SELF
SHEATHS
SKANDHAS
STEM
STHULA
VEDA
VEHICLES
VITAL AIRS
WING