Sthūla-śarīra

Sthūla-śarīra (devanāgarī: स्थूलशरीर) is a compound Sanskrit word from sthūla ("densse, gross, solid"), and śarīra ("body"). This term is used to refer to the physical body, which can be perceived through our five senses.

General description

Since the early Theosophical classifications of the human constitution the sthula-sarira was listed as the densest and lower principle in human beings "composed wholly of matter in its grossest and most tangible form". According to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky this Rupa, or Sthula-Sarira "is the vehicle of all the other "principles" during life".

Although the body is a vehicle of consciousness, it has its own automatic elemntal conaciousness and activity which prevents the higher consciousness from manifesting on the phyisical plane:

We assert that the divine spark in man being one and identical in its essence with the Universal Spirit, our "spiritual Self" is practically omniscient, but that it cannot manifest its knowledge owing to the impediments of matter. Now the more these impediments are removed, in other words, the more the physical body is paralyzed, as to its own independent activity and consciousness, as in deep sleep or deep trance, or, again, in illness, the more fully can the inner Self manifest on this plane.

Esoteric view

In a more esoteric classification of the human principles Mme. Blavatsky did not include the sthula-sarira as a principle in itself but as a vehicle of consciousness:

The Body is not a Principle in strict Esoteric parlance; it is an upadhi rather than a Principle. But it is a vehicle of consciousness, and therefore must be considered in studying Consciousness. Apart from this, it can be regarded as merely a denser aspect of the Linga-Śarîra, for the Body and the Linga-Śarîra are both on the same plane, and the Linga- Śarîra is molecular in its constitution, like the Body.

Physical body according to Annie Besant

Annie Besant regarded the sthūla-śarīra as the dense counterpart of the physical body, which is also composed of a subtle counterpart, the liṅga-śarīra:

Under the term physical body must be included the two lower principles of man - called in our old terminology the Sthūla Sharīra and Linga Sharīra - since they both function on the physical plane, are composed of physical matter, are formed for the period of one physical life, are cast off by the man at death, and disintegrate together in the physical world when he passes on into the astral.

Further reading

• Triad at Theosopedia