शरीर
Sharira
śarīra
In simple words
Sharira means body. Many Indian traditions say you have a body but are not the body: it changes from childhood to old age while the one who knows it remains.
What is it?
Vedantic texts analyse embodiment into three bodies: the gross (sthula), made of elements; the subtle (sukshma), including mind, intellect, senses and vital forces; and the causal (karana), the seed-state of ignorance. The Gita calls the body the 'field' (kshetra) and the one who knows it the 'knower of the field' (kshetrajna). Sankhya places the body wholly within nature (prakriti). Tantric and Hatha traditions, while agreeing it is not the final Self, treat the body as a vehicle and even a map of the cosmos.
Scholar’s note
The three-body and five-sheath (pancha-kosha, from the Taittiriya Upanishad) schemes are systematised in texts like Tattva Bodha and Vivekachudamani. Jain thought counts several bodies including a karmic body (karmana sharira). Buddhist analysis includes the body as the aggregate of form (rupa). Sadhak Sanjivani repeatedly stresses that the body is 'this', an object, and so cannot be 'I'.How its meaning differs
Gross, subtle and causal bodies are all objects known by the witness-Self; identifying with them is the basic error.
The body, senses and mind are products of prakriti; purusha only appears bound through association with them.
The soul is embodied through several bodies, including a subtle karmic body made of karmic matter that accompanies it between lives.
The body is one of the five aggregates, impermanent and not-self, but there is no separate eternal self standing behind it.
The body is a microcosm and a site of practice; channels, centres and breath are used as means of realisation.
In the Bhagavad Gita — as Sadhak Sanjivani explains it
Summary based on Sadhak Sanjivaniसाधक-संजीवनीपर आधारित सारSwamiji points out that the body never stays the same: it did not exist before birth, will not exist after death, and even now it is dying every moment (2.13, 2.16). Just as we change old clothes without grieving, the embodied one leaves worn-out bodies and takes new ones (2.22). We call the body sometimes 'I' and sometimes 'mine', but in truth it is 'this' — an object, like every other thing in the world (13.1). The body is not even a limb of the self, because what keeps flowing and changing cannot be part of the unchanging (2.20). The gunas bind us only because we take the body as 'I' and 'mine' (14.5). The body, abilities and possessions we have are received and will be parted from, so they are not for ourselves but for the service of others (3.13).
स्वामीजी बताते हैं कि शरीर कभी एकरूप नहीं रहता — जन्मसे पहले नहीं था, मरनेके बाद नहीं रहेगा और अभी भी प्रतिक्षण मर रहा है (२।१३, २।१६)। जैसे पुराने कपड़े बदलनेपर शोक नहीं होता, ऐसे ही देही पुराने शरीर छोड़कर नये शरीर धारण करता है (२।२२)। मनुष्य शरीरको कभी 'मैं' और कभी 'मेरा' कहता है, पर वास्तवमें यह भी 'यह' (इदम्) ही है (१३।१)। शरीर स्वयंका अंग भी नहीं है; जो बहनेवाला और विकारी है, वह अविकारीका अंग नहीं हो सकता (२।२०)। 'मैं शरीर हूँ और शरीर मेरा है' — ऐसा माननेसे ही गुण हमें बाँधते हैं (१४।५)। शरीर, योग्यता, वस्तुएँ सब मिली हुई और बिछुड़नेवाली हैं, इसलिये अपने लिये नहीं, दूसरोंकी सेवाके लिये हैं (३।१३)।
शरीर कभी एकरूप रहता ही नहीं और सत्ता कभी अनेकरूप होती ही नहीं। शरीर जन्मसे पहले भी नहीं था, मरनेके बाद भी नहीं रहेगा तथा वर्तमानमें भी वह प्रतिक्षण मर रहा है।Where it appears in the Gita
Like childhood, youth and age — so is a new body
जैसे बचपन, जवानी, बुढ़ापा—वैसे ही दूसरा शरीर
देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा।
As the embodied one passes through childhood, youth and old age in this body, so it passes to another body; the steady one is not deluded by this.
जैसे इस शरीरमें बालकपन, जवानी और वृद्धावस्था होती है, वैसे ही दूसरे शरीरकी प्राप्ति होती है; धीर मनुष्य इसमें मोहित नहीं होता।
2.16The unreal has no being; the real never ceases
असत्की सत्ता नहीं, सत्का अभाव नहीं
नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सत:।
The unreal has no existence and the real never ceases to be; the seers of truth have seen the essence of both.
असत्का भाव विद्यमान नहीं और सत्का अभाव विद्यमान नहीं; तत्त्वदर्शी महापुरुषोंने दोनोंका तत्त्व अनुभव किया है।
2.20Never born, never dying — the Self is free of all six changes
न जन्म, न मृत्यु—शरीरी छहों विकारोंसे रहित
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूय:।
The Self is never born and never dies; unborn, eternal, changeless and ancient, it is not slain when the body is slain.
यह शरीरी न कभी जन्मता है, न मरता है; यह अज, नित्य, शाश्वत और पुराण है, शरीरके मारे जानेपर भी नहीं मारा जाता।
2.22As one changes worn-out clothes, the embodied changes bodies
जैसे पुराने कपड़े बदलते हैं, वैसे देही शरीर बदलता है
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि।
Just as a person discards old clothes and puts on new ones, the embodied one leaves worn-out bodies and enters new ones.
जैसे मनुष्य पुराने कपड़े छोड़कर नये धारण कर लेता है, ऐसे ही देही पुराने शरीर छोड़कर नये शरीरोंमें चला जाता है।
3.13यज्ञशिष्टाशिन: सन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषै:।
यज्ञशेष (योग) का अनुभव करनेवाले श्रेष्ठ मनुष्य सम्पूर्ण पापोंसे मुक्त हो जाते हैं। परन्तु जो केवल अपने लिये ही पकाते अर्थात् सब कर्म करते हैं, वे पापीलोग (तो) पापका (ही) भक्षण करते हैं।
13.1This body is the field, and you are its knower
यह शरीर क्षेत्र है, इसे जाननेवाला क्षेत्रज्ञ
इदं
The body is ‘this’, something seen and always changing; the one who knows it is its knower, not the body itself.
शरीर ‘यह’ है—दीखनेवाला और बदलनेवाला; इसे जाननेवाला क्षेत्रज्ञ है, शरीर नहीं।
14.5Sattva, rajas and tamas bind the imperishable self to the body
तीनों गुण अविनाशी देहीको देहमें बाँधते हैं
सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणा: प्रकृतिसम्भवा:।
The three gunas born of prakriti bind the imperishable embodied self to the body, but only because it takes the body as ‘I’ and ‘mine’.
प्रकृतिजन्य तीनों गुण अविनाशी देहीको देहमें बाँधते हैं—पर तभी, जब वह देहको ‘मैं’ और ‘मेरा’ मानता है।
Where else it appears
Follow this idea
Trace the idea from one source to the next.
- 1Gita verseBhagavad Gita 2.13The body passes through childhood, youth and age; the embodied one remains.
- 2Gita verseBhagavad Gita 2.22Bodies are changed like worn-out clothes.
- 3Gita verseBhagavad Gita 13.1The body as the field, and its knower.
- 4Textतत्त्वबोधTattva BodhaA short primer on the three bodies.
- 5Textतैत्तिरीयोपनिषद्Taittiriya UpanishadThe origin of the five-sheath model.
- 6Conceptअनात्मन्Anatta (Anatman)Contrast: the Buddhist view with no self behind the body.
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