About Being a Human Being—The Highest Form of Spiritual Evolution
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...”(Genesis 1:26)
Being human means much more than being a creature born on Earth. Man is an expression of Divinity, a spark of Absolute Being, traveling through time, space, and duality to become aware of itself and return, free and transformed, to the Source.
Before a ray of Spirit steps into the Human Idea, it is a Monadic Being—part of the Archangelic Orders. Archangels are beings of absolute wisdom, but they do not have access to the experience of separation or to the emotions and thoughts born of contrast. They serve the Divine Plan without questions or choices, in complete harmony, but without individual Self-awareness. This is why the human experience is unique and irreplaceable within Creation.
Man is sent into the worlds of separation—into the material, psychic, and noetic planes—to learn through contrast, through suffering, love, joy, fear, thought, and choice. In this context, the human being can say, “I am I,” discovering his own identity, not through mere existence, but through experience and transformation.
After the Spirit passes through the Archangelic Idea of Man and then through the Heavenly Idea of Man, it projects itself into a Self-Aware Soul. This soul is pure, eternal, complete and has the potential to become the individualized expression of Divinity. It is a center of divine light, a womb of superconsciousness, capable of creating, choosing, loving, and returning to God consciously.
The soul is invulnerable—it cannot be touched by physical pain or material destruction. In order to live in the worlds of separation, this soul projects a Permanent Personality, which becomes the bearer of consciousness in multiple incarnations. The personality is shaped over time, accumulating experiences, teachings, and life lessons. It is the personality that suffers, loves, searches, makes mistakes, and rises—but it is also the personality that, through transformation, can become a clear channel for the expression of the soul.
This journey through worlds and bodies is not a punishment but a spiritual school—a workshop of divine becoming. In man, duality is accepted and transformed; in man, God experiences Himself. That is why the human being is the most complex and gifted form of life in Creation, as Yogananda said:
“The human form is higher than the angelic form. Man is the most exalted being in Creation because he aspires to freedom.”
Thus, the human being is not simply a “child of chance,” but a son of God in the making, called to transform matter into light, emotion into love, thought into wisdom, and life into full consciousness.
The road is long, but the goal is sublime: the rediscovery and conscious living of one’s own divine nature. This is the true meaning of the expression:
“In His image and likeness.”
The Individualized Self—A Journey Back to the Light
Every human being is a unique expression of Absolute Being. The divine light within us embarks on a journey, shrouded in veils of matter and experience that accompany us through the seven universes of Creation. This journey is not only about existence on the physical plane but, above all, about rediscovering the Self—the real, eternal Self that exists beyond space, time, and form.
The Individualized Self is structured in four interconnected expressions:
- Spirit-Ego-Being—This is our pure essence, the divine origin that does not express itself directly but projects a ray into Creation. It is the divine spark that, like the sun, sends light into the world. It is not just a part of us—it is what we are in essence, before any form or personality.
- The Self-Aware Soul—When the ray of Spirit passes through the Human Idea, the Soul is born—a center of consciousness capable of recognizing, comparing, and understanding experiences in the world of duality. The Soul is the womb in which individuality develops, but at the same time it maintains the connection with the Eternal and the Divine.
- The Permanent Personality—This is the stable expression of the soul in the planes of separation. It oversees and guides successive lives, learning, integrating, and synthesizing experiences. It is the karmic architect and spiritual director of our incarnations.
- The Temporary Personality—This is what we are experiencing right now: the thoughts, emotions, roles, and conditioning of our current life. It is the visible expression of a much broader and deeper journey, a fragment of a divine story that is being written over many lifetimes.
To know our Individual Self is to understand who we truly are. We are not just bodies, emotions, or ideas. We are divine beings on a journey back to our Source, to become aware, through experience, of what we already are in essence: Love, Light and Life.
Spiritual exercises, inner reflection, knowledge, and meditation become sacred tools through which we can cleanse the veils of personality and reveal the light that already dwells within us. As Christ reminds us, “Let your light shine before men…””—because this light is the eternal spark of the Father, reflected in the heart of every human being.