Vladimir Antonov

What Is Man

Translated from Russian by Mikhail Nikolenko

        In order to be really comprehensive the whole system of knowledge about human being should be based on the premise that man is not a body, but a consciousness, i.e. living energy, capable of self-awareness and possessing mind and memory. The body is merely a transient habitat for the consciousness. And throughout the personal evolution, every individual moves in and out of those habitats, dropping off old bodies and entering new ones.
        Materialists and followers of primitive religious sects do not believe this. On the other hand, God has been telling us about this through Thoth-the-Atlantean (Hermes Trismegistus), Lao Tse, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Babaji from Haidakhan, Sathya Sai Baba, and numerous other Divine Teachers and prophets [1-4,6-7,9-11,13-16,18-19,23,25-26,29,35-37,40-42, 45-56,58].
        One may or may not believe in this. A small and weak consciousness, which associates itself with a contaminated and sick body, is generally unable to switch from blind faith (or lack of it) to knowledge. But one can experience this, if one starts to develop oneself as a consciousness. This process is also known as walking the spiritual Path.
        It is this process of development of the consciousness, both qualitatively and quantitatively, that constitutes the meaning of man’s life, as well as lives of all living beings.
        But what is this all for, one may ask? The answer is — for the sake of merging with God, and thus enriching Him with oneself.
        Everything material in the universe, including our planet and everything on it, exists only for that purpose: to ensure the possibility of development of individual consciousnesses on material mediums.
        Evolution of any individual soul starts as follows. On the lattices of growing minerals the processes of formation and growth of the first rudiments of initially diffusive energy (called protopurusha in Sanskrit) begin. Subsequently the tiny amount of energy formed in this way gets embodied into bodies of plants, where it continues to grow, then it moves into animal bodies and finally into human ones. The soul grows from one incarnation to another.
        One can observe some primitive emotional reactions and motor reflexes even in vegetable forms of life. Evolutionary advanced animals have a wide variety of emotions and feelings and, in some instances, even possess a well-developed intellect.
        At the human stage of evolution, among other things, we have to get an understanding of the fundamental principles of consciousness’ development and to take an active part in this process. Unfortunately, the majority of people do not do this, mainly due to philosophical and religious ignorance that currently prevails on our planet.

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Chapter from the book by Vladimir Antonov Ecopsychology.