Structure of Astral Body

In the previous post of human body. We have seen that human body is made up of physical body and astral body (subtle body). Scientist have detailed knowledge of physical body. We also learn about working of physical body in school and colleges, but we are not taught about astral body. As we know, astral body is primary body to develop illness and heal illness, detailed knowledge of its structure and its function is absolutely essential. Astral body is mainly made up of nadis(life force energy flowing channels), chakras(energy centres) and kundalini(dormant serpent power). it is necessary to study their location, function and nature.

In this post, I am going to write about nadis.

Nadis (life force energy flowing channels)

Nadis are subtle passages to flow pran or vital force energy in every cell of the body. They are astral tubes made up of astral or subtle matter. Since they are made up of astral matter they cannot be seen by naked eyes or by existing modern scientific instruments. They are not ordinary nerves or arteries or veins. They are quite different from them.

Nadis play vital part in functioning of astral body. They are innumerable so that they cannot be counted, but yogis state number of nadis between 72000 and 350000. Out of innumerable nadis, 14 nadis are said to be important. Out of those 14 nadis, 3 nadis i.e. ida , pingala and sushumana are most important. Sushumana is the main nadi.

Ida nadi start from the left testicle and pingala nadi from right testicle. Ida flows through the left nostril and pingala flows through the right nostril. Ida is associated with lunar energy, It is the Chandra(moon), nadi and has cooling effect. It is feminine energy and is associated with the right side of the brain. It controls all the mental processes. Pingala nadi is associated with solar energy. It is surya(sun) nadi and has heating effect and digests foods. It is masculine energy.

Sushumna nadi starts at first crossing of ida and pingla nadi, which is situated at the base of the spine between the anus and the root of the reproductive organs. Also at the place, muladhar [root] chakra is situated. Sushumna is dropped within the spinal canal. Ida and pinagla nadis spirals around sushumna like the double helix of our DNA, crossing each other at every chakra along the spine. All nadis meet at ajna [third eye] chakra, midway between the eyebrows. When nadis are full of impurities, the pran cannot pass through sushumna. Sushumna is activated when the breathe flows through both the nostrils simultaneously. When pran flows through sushumna, the mind becomes steady and calm, the highest state of yoga. When this system works freely and efficiently, we are vital and healthy, physically and mentally. When it becomes congested or obstructed, we become sick physically and mentally. Nadis can be cleaned or purified by certain yoga practices such as anulom vilom pranayam(alternate nostril breathing).

Human Body

In this post, I am going to write about different typed of human bodies for better understanding of how and why different ailments are caused and how they can be cured.

Our human body is made up of three different bodies:
1. Physical body
2. Astral/subtle body
3. Mental

In this post, I am going to focus more on the first two bodies, as they affect our day to day life; depending on how well we take care of them.

1. Physical body

As an ordinary person, we only know about the physical bodies. It made up of five basic elements:
- Earth
- Water
- Fire
- Air
- Ether (space)

It has several operating systems, such as, digestive, excretory, circulatory, nervous, immune, reproductory etc. All these systems work in coordination with each other and are controlled by brain. Scientists have a quite in-depth knowledge of how it works right up to cells, genes and DNA.

2. Astral body

Behind this physical body, there is another body called the astral body. It is also called the subtle/molecular body. It is called molecular body, because when it leaves the physical body, its speed is of molecular level. It is invisible, yet we can feel its presence. It cannot be seen by modern scientific instruments such as x-rays, sonography, CT scan, MRI etc but day to day experience confirms its reality. It gives us ability to have desires, emotions, and imagination and physic abilities. It is made up of senses, chakras/plexus (energy centres), nadis (life force energy circulating channels), mind, emotions, intellect etc. In the future posts, I will write more details on the astral body.

In the following table, I have tried to compare astral body and physical body:

Astral body	Physical body
It is invisible, yet we will feel its presence.	It is visible.
It has five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.	It has five sense organs: eye, ear, nose, tongue and skin.
It has chakras/plexuses such as root chakra, heart chakra, third eye chakra etc.	It has endocrine glands such as prostate gland, thymus gland, pituitary gland etc.
It has mind to control its functions.	It is brain to control its functions.
It can cause negative or positive emotions.	Different emotions can produce different chemicals in the physical body.
It takes in pran by the use of kand (subtle bulb)	It takes in air by use of lungs.
Pran is circulated in the whole body by heart chakra.	Blood is circulated in the whole body by heart.
Pran is circulating in nadis, such as ida, pingla, sushumna etc.	Blood is circulating in arteries and veins.
Nadis carry emotions and feelings of the mind to the whole astral body.	Nervous system carries impulses from brain to the whole physical body.
Debris of negative emotions causes blockages and knots in pran circulation.	Morbids collected in physical body causes blockages in blood circulation.

From the above table, we can see that different emotions produce different chemicals in the body. Negative emotions of anger, fear, doubt, jealousy, anxiety, depression produces bad hormones in the physical body. Anger, for instance, creates the urge to attack; fear causes the urge to escape and so on. These emotions involve both the mind and body. As thoughts about action to these specific urges (attack, escape), body mobilizes physiological support by producing more negative hormones, causing heighted cardiovascular reactivity. Such cardiovascular reactivity, if large, recurrent or prolonged is thought to develop coronary heart disease, initiate atherosclerosis, high B.P etc.

In the same way, positive emotions of joy, love, happiness, forgiveness, gratitude, kindness, hope, inspiration, amusement etc produces good hormones. Love and joy, for instance, causes our body to be flooded with hormones that makes us feel good, which reduces stress, heal ailments, and lengthen our lives.

Focusing on negative emotions will lead you to even more negative emotions.  It’s a vicious cycle that a lot of people try to escape from. Positive emotions also work in the same way, so focusing on positive emotions leads to more positive emotions. The benefits of positive emotions are varied such as better attention and focus, better relationships, better health etc.

As negative emotions are necessary to flourish, they should come and go. They should not be recurrent or hold for long. Rather than trying to eliminate negativity, we should balance negative feelings with positive feelings.

Recurrent, large and longer negative emotions causes imbalance of chakras and energy systems in astral body. After some time, it manifests as disease symptom in physical body. This way, the astral body is the primary body causing ailments. If you want to cure an ailment, you should first deal with the astral body causing the particular ailment.