The Causal body - originally Karana-Sarira - is a Yogic and Vedantic concept that was adopted and modified by Theosophy and from the latter made its way into the general New Age movement and contemporary western esotericism. It generally refers to the highest or innermost body that veils the atman or true Self. Hinduism Karana sarira or the causal body is the cause or seed of the subtle body and the gross body. It has no other function than being the seed of the subtle and the gross body. It is nirvikalpa rupam, "undifferentiated form". It originates with avidya, "ignorance" or "nescience" of the real identity of the atman, instead giving birth to the notion of jiva-bhuta. Swami Sivananda characterizes the causal body as "The beginningless ignorance that is indescribable". Siddharameshwar Maharaj, the guru of Nisargadatta Maharaj, also describes the causal body as characterized by "emptiness", "ignorance" and "darkness". In the search for the "I am", this is a state where there is nothing to hold on to anymore. Ramanuja concludes that it is at this stage that consummation of the atman with the Paramatman is reached and the search of the highest Purusa i.e. of Ishvara ends. According to other philosophical schools the causal body is not the atman, because it also has a beginning and an end and is subject to modification. Shankara, not seeking a personal god, goes beyond Anandamaya Kosha in search of the transcendent Brahman. The Indian tradition identifies it with the Anandamaya kosha, and the deep sleep state, as mentioned in the Mandukya Upanishad, where buddhi becomes dormant and all concepts of time fail, although there differences between these three descriptions. Theosophy In Blavatsky's synthesis of eastern philosophy with western esotericism, the union of the higher Manas with the Buddhi (i.e. the essential nature of the fifth, along with the sixth, of the seven principles) is referred to as the Causal Body (Blavatsky, Key to Theosophy, pp. 121, 174). This higher principle is contrasted with the lower, the Kama-Manas, which is the seat of lower passions. In the Theosophy of Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, the "Causal Body" refers not to the "Buddhi-Manas" but to Blavatsky's "Higher Manas" alone. This is also referred to as the "Higher Mental", "Abstract Mind" (as opposed to Lower Mental or "Concrete Mind"), or "Causal Body". It is considered the highest subtle body, beyond even the mental body.