onsdag 07 april 2004 22:12 skrev moon_81_surfer:
> What is a spiritual body ("siddha deha")?
> I think this concept comes from the Siddha-Yogis?
> Can someone explain?

Siddha deha (perfected body) is a Gaudiya Vaisnava (Bengal Vaisnava) concept.
The concept of the identity of the self differs between Vaisnavism and some
other hindu faiths. According to Vaisnavism, the individual self is an
eternal individual, never born and will never die. The personal identity will
never merge or dissolve into brahman, but will always remain a separate
individual with individual consciousness. So the individual soul is eternal,
even though it is part of brahman itself (how that can be is a mystery of
brahman). At the current point of time the soul is covered by illusion of
being a human in the material world. We have taken a false identity in this
world, which we identify with and think is us. We think we are female or
male, Indian or American, white or black, rich or poor etc. When we leave
this body, we will also leave this particular false identity, and reincarnate
into another false identity. The illusion of maya is the belief that this
false identity is the real us.

Perfection for a Vaisnava means to stop the cycle of reincarnation and of
acquiring false material identities. It means to discard the false material
identity, to develop a true spiritual identity in the soul itself, and learn
to interact directly with other souls on the level of that soul. That true
identity is not illusion, it is truth, and it is ourselves, and what is
called "siddha deha".

So it is a description of the spiritual identity after liberation from the
material cycle of reincarnation, the perfected form or spiritual body.
"Svarupa" (original form) is describing the same thing.

Prisni