Within the authentic Theosophical literature there are various layers and levels of meaning and esoteric disclosure.

One of the most striking examples of this is in regard to the subject of the Causal Body, or Karana Sharira in Sanskrit.

The original teachings of Theosophy do not refer very often at all to this and it is generally presented that the human being only has two “principles” or components of his or her sevenfold nature (see The Sevenfold Nature of Man and Understanding Our Seven Principles) which can properly be called or thought of as “bodies,” namely the physical body or Sthula Sharira and its energising astral double or astral body, the Linga Sharira. We used the word “generally,” because there is more to it than that; for details and explanations, please see The Question of The Etheric Body, Astral Body, and Other Bodies.

In some later and very different versions of Theosophy, the Causal Body is mentioned frequently. Its scarcity of mention by H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge occasionally leads students of their teachings to dismiss the Causal Body as a “neo-theosophical” or “pseudo-theosophical” concept. But that is erroneous. Numerous of the things said about it by some later Theosophical writers may be false and misleading, but the Causal Body itself is legitimate and referred to by HPB.

Most of HPB’s explanations regarding it seem to imply that really it is not literally any type of “body” at all and that it is merely a synonym for the Reincarnating Ego or human soul, our Higher Manas principle, the Manasaputra, our true, permanent, spiritual Individuality. In “The Theosophical Glossary,” for example, we find these entries:

“Causal Body. This “body”, which is no body either objective or subjective, but Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul, is so called because it is the direct cause of the Sushupti condition, leading to the Turya state, the highest state of Samadhi. It is called Karanopadhi, “the basis of the Cause”, by the Taraka Raja Yogis; and in the Vedanta system it corresponds to both the Vigmânamaya and Anandamaya Kosha, the latter coming next to Atma, and therefore being the vehicle of the universal Spirit. Buddhi alone could not be called a “Causal Body”, but becomes so in conjunction with Manas, the incarnating Entity or EGO.” (p. 74)

“Kârana Sarîra (Sk.). The “Causal body”. It is dual in its meaning. Exoterically, it is Avidya, ignorance, or that which is the cause of the evolution of a human ego and its reincarnation; hence the lower Manas esoterically – the causal body or Kâranopadhi stands in the Taraka Raja-yoga as corresponding to Buddhi and the Higher “Manas,” or Spiritual Soul.” (p. 173)

We see there that on that occasion HPB even equated the Causal Body with the Lower Manas, which is the lower ego, the present and passing personality.

Yet at other times she provides hints and clues which lead us to the conclusion that such definitions as the above are most likely “exoteric blinds,” i.e. statements which are partially correct but which also serve as deliberate veiling and concealment of the true and complete esoteric teaching as taught in the Masters’ School and Brotherhood. Nevertheless, even these definitions are mostly not those of Hinduism, which is where the term (but not the concept) of “Karana Sharira” or “Causal Body” originates.

She still does not – nor would anyone be permitted to – disclose or spell out plainly to the general public the complete and unveiled truth and reality of the matter but she offers us on occasion a clearer insight, albeit in cautious and tentative language so as to avoid giving out to the world more than is appropriate at this stage of human development and evolution:

“It would seem probable that in the fourfold division of the human being here referred to as that which was adopted by the earliest Christians, the “spiritual body” may be identified with the Karana Sarira, or “causal body” of Eastern philosophy. It is the inseparable and co-existent vehicle of the Monad during the periods of manifestation, and is best described, as indicated by its name, as that in which inhere all the Karmic causes which have been generated by that “monad.”

“The exact relation of this causal or spiritual body to the Monad in Devachan has never been clearly explained in any Theosophical treatise. It would seem probable, however, that during the Devachanic state this vehicle undergoes a process of involution, by which it assimilates all the spiritual essence of the experiences passed through during the previous life.

“The spiritual body being co-existent with the Monad cannot die, but it would appear probable that the return to incarnation is caused by the termination of the process of involution just mentioned.” (H. P. Blavatsky, Notes from “Lucifer,” “Theosophical Articles and Notes” p. 204-205)

In “Dialogue between The Two Editors: On Astral Bodies, or Doppelgangers” HPB had spoken of “the true Ego, called in the East, by a name meaning “causal body” but which in the trans-Himalayan schools is always called the “Karmic body,” which is the same. For Karma or action is the cause which produces incessant rebirths or “reincarnations.” It is not the Monad, nor is it Manas proper; but is, in a way, indissolubly connected with, and a compound of the Monad and Manas in Devachan.”

Here she is initially speaking as if the Causal Body or Karmic Body – that which is, as we saw in the previous quote, the preserver, recorder, and container, of all the Karmic causes generated by that soul – is just another name for the Reincarnating Ego, i.e. the human soul, which in Theosophical terminology is the immortal Higher Manas “principle” or entity within us. Yet she then tells us that in reality the Causal Body “is not the Monad [i.e. Atma-Buddhi], nor is it Manas proper [i.e. Higher Manas]” but it “is, in a way, indissolubly connected with” them.

In his article “What Reincarnates?” Robert Crosbie (the founder of the United Lodge of Theosophists) sheds some further light on this, although he does not there use the specific phrase “causal body.” He instead uses terms such as “the true body of primordial matter,” “a body of finest substance,” “the highest vesture of the Soul,” “the real container for the individual,” and asserts that “Everything that occurs to us is within that body”:

“We should remember that we were self-conscious beings when this planet began; some even were self-conscious when this solar system began; for there is a difference in degree of development among human beings. If the planet or solar system began in a state of primordial substance, or nebulous matter, as Science calls it, then we must have had bodies of that state of substance. In that finest substance are all the possibilities of every grade of matter, and hence it is that within the true body of primordial matter all the changes of coarser and coarser substance have been brought about; and within that body is all experience. Our birth is within that body. Everything that occurs to us is within that body – a body of a nature which does not change throughout the whole Manvantara. Each one has such a body of finest substance, of the inner nature, which is the real container for the individual. In it he lives and moves and has his being, and yet even the great glory and fineness of that body is not the man; it is merely the highest vesture of the Soul.” (“The Friendly Philosopher” p. 237, also in “Universal Theosophy”)

In “Extracts from Unpublished Letters” B. P. Wadia once wrote to a student of Theosophy:

“When our consciousness is freed from the body and its senses and from the kamic nature which works even in the Swapna [i.e. dream] condition, we so to speak rise to a plane where our Monadic Triad [i.e. Atma-Buddhi-Manas; please see the article The Monad and The Ego are an Eternal Triad] functions in what is called the causal body by H.P.B., or Anandamayakosa [i.e. literally “bliss body” or “body/sheath made of joy and bliss”] in the Vedantic classification. Mr. Judge speaks of it as the ethereal vesture. We function there in Sushupti [i.e. dreamless sleep] that way, but not being accustomed to the subtle vibrations of that state we naturally go to sleep and fall into subjectivity. All the same we begin to absorb whatever is there in that state of consciousness for us.”

In “The Secret Doctrine,” HPB quite frequently makes mention of the Sanskrit term Hiranyagarbha, which is frequently used in Hinduism. Her “Theosophical Glossary” entry for it says that it is “The radiant or golden egg or womb. Esoterically the luminous “fire mist” or ethereal stuff from which the Universe was formed.” (p. 142)

We read in “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 426, that “in the Rig Veda, wherein Brahmā is not even named, Cosmogony is preluded with the Hiranyagarbha, “the Golden Egg,” and Prajapati (Brahmā later on), from whom emanate all the hierarchies of “Creators.”” There is a whole section between p. 359-368 in the first volume of “The Secret Doctrine” on the symbolism of the egg.

One could quite easily get the impression from HPB’s writings that the Hiranyagarbha is solely something cosmic or universal and does not have any analogy or correspondence for the human being. But Theosophy always emphasises the principle of “as above, so below,” and that the microcosm or man is the mirror and reflection of the macrocosm or Universe. Hence we do find very occasional, fleeting references in “The Secret Doctrine” to each human being having their own encapsulating “egg.”

Speaking about the Egyptian Book of the Dead, she says that “The deceased is “resplendent in the Egg of the land of mysteries” (zxii., I)” and “In Kircher’s Œdipus Egyptiacus (vol. iii., p. 124) one can see, on the papyrus engraved in it, an egg floating above the mummy. This is the symbol of hope and the promise of a second birth for the Osirified dead; his Soul, after due purification in the Amenti, will gestate in this egg of immortality, to be reborn from it into a new life on earth. For this Egg, in the esoteric Doctrine, is the Devachan, the abode of Bliss; the winged scarabeus being alike a symbol of it. The “winged globe” is but another form of the egg, and has the same significance as the scarabeus, the Khopiroo (from the root Khoproo “to become,” “to be reborn,”) which relates to the rebirth of man, as well as to his spiritual regeneration.” (Vol. 1, p. 359, 365)

We mention all this because it would appear that our Causal Body, Karmic Body, or Karana Sharira, and our own individual Hiranyagarbha or mysterious “egg of immortality,” are one and the same “thing.”

This is all undoubtedly still a highly sacred mystery, otherwise HPB would have spelt it all out more clearly for the general public. But in “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 117, she does say, when referring to the earliest Root Races of humanity, that “The astral form clothing the Monad was surrounded, as it still is, by its egg-shaped sphere of aura.” In the next paragraph she calls it “the egg of surrounding aura.”

We have seen that HPB indicated that during the temporary heavenly state after death known in Theosophy by the Tibetan name of Devachan, one’s Causal Body “undergoes a process of involution, by which it assimilates all the spiritual essence of the experiences passed through during the previous life. . . . it would appear probable that the return to incarnation is caused by the termination of the process of involution just mentioned” and also the suggestion that a soul’s Devachanic experience actually takes place within its own “egg of immortality.”

Julia Keightley (perhaps better known to Theosophists by her pen name of Jasper Niemand) published an article titled “The Sleeping Spheres” in the July 1893 issue of William Q. Judge’s magazine “The Path.” While it describes a personal occult experience in language which some Theosophists have – perhaps too critically – considered “psychic rather than spiritual,” it nonetheless relates to and illustrates what we are talking about.

Keightley hoped that the description of her visionary experience “might be able to make this, the Devachanic State, clearer to the thought of some of my fellows. For the sleeping Spheres are Devachanic entities. In Devachan we are not yet united with the Unknown Source. Hence the need, on the part of the Ego, of form – or container – of some kind. I have chosen here, arbitrarily perhaps, the name of “Sphere” for this Devachanic form. These Spheres, than which there are none more beautiful, do not lie in any given place; they are self-contained; they have condition, but no place. When I asked my Companion [i.e. the Initiate who guided her out of the body in this experience] how this could really be so, he pointed out to me that they interpenetrated many other states of matter, cohering by means of their own vibration, just as do all other forms, of whatever kind and how­ever ethereal, throughout the whole of Nature.

“I had passed from my body into the air and the airy form, and from thence into the ether. All about me lay the sleeping Spheres, delicate milky films on the golden ocean of light. Ever and anon a thrill of faintest color trembled across their deeps, and I trembled too, for it was given to me to know that these color-motions were, in reality, Thoughts of profound delight. Yes, these palpitating Spheres had pure joy in their own opalescent motions; joy as they throbbed in the living ether, and a joy which had great meaning. . . .

“Imagine, then, that I saw these radiant shapes, now silvery, with a bluish frost upon them, now blooming into tints so translucent that the eye of the soul alone could perceive them, and that every tint was a Thought, an experience. These fair Thoughts were the dreams of the souls disengaged from earth. Dreaming thus, the Spheres slept. How blissful the dreams! For those colors were both living Light and Intelligence; each color was Thought; Thought of the most exalted order known to the human Mind. Thought quivered through the Spheres, changing their Consciousness; fusing them anew; quickening their higher Life; illumining their purer Light, in a world-plane whereon Light, Life, and Thought are one magnificent act of Being, and not the trivial things known to most men in this everyday world. Each Sphere thus became more and more incandescent with this three-fold life, and I saw them blooming and growing, through this sweet iris-hued ebb and flow, as a flower unfolds towards greater perfection by means of assimilated sun-light. The unfoldment was divine, the peace profound. Silence, like a brooding mother, covered them over; it was only enhanced by an occasional soft semi-tone, the harmonious breathing of the sleeping Spheres.”

To conclude, it would seem safe to say that the Akashic “Golden Egg” (Hiranyagarbha) which is the envelope of the whole Universe is mirrored as a sacred Egg around every human being and inseparable from the Higher Ego or Manasaputra, the true immortal Soul. This, it appears, is our Causal Body (Karana Sharira) and the highest and most transcendental aspect of the human aura or “energy field.” This is perhaps the “ethereal form” referred to by H. P. Blavatsky when saying, “The re-incarnating Principle, or that which we call the divine man, is indestructible throughout the life cycle: indestructible as a thinking Entity, and even as an ethereal form.” (“The Key to Theosophy” p. 177)

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