Page 42 - NAMAH-Jan-2024

Namah Vol. 31, Issue 4, 15th January 2024

the purpose of life and the notions of right individual is the evolution and individualisation
and wrong, moral conventions, ethics of the soul within.
and codes of conduct. Depending on the
context of your birth and upbringing, you “The soul is a spark of the Divine which is
inherit corresponding mental belief-systems, not seated above the manifested being, but
experience them as your own and form your comes down into the manifestation to support
identity around them. First as the mental ego its evolution in the material world. It is at
of the group and then within this formation, first an undifferentiated power of the divine
you own little variation providing a sense of consciousness, containing all possibilities, but
unique individual identity. However, this is at first with unevolved possibilities, which
still only a habitual and surface formation have not yet taken form, but to which it is the
of the mental ego, the surface personality, function of evolution to give form. This spark
a mask. is there in all living beings, from the lowest to
the highest (7).”
The territorial sense of the vital ego usually
gets extended to the mental ego and you would This spark, the immortal element in the mortal
feel threatened when someone questions your evolves through the process of rebirth in the
belief-systems. You would feel your identity is material world, eventually developing into
getting attacked. The mental ego can further an individualised personality of the soul
expand the sense of territoriality beyond the expressed through the human body and it is
physical regional identities to a more subtle at this stage Integral Yoga calls it the psychic
world of thoughts, ideas and belief-systems. being.
It is still an ego nevertheless. Generally,
developmental psychologists focus on the “The psychic being is formed by the soul in its
individualisation of the physical, vital and evolution. It supports the mind, vital, body,
mental ego, the instrumental layers. grows by their experiences, carries the nature
from life to life. It is the psychic or caitya purusa.
s
Evolution and Individualisation of the Soul At first it is veiled by mind, vital and body,
but, as it grows, it becomes capable of coming
forward and dominating the mind, life and
body (8);…”

This evolution and coming forward of the
psychic being is the key to our evolutionary
destiny on Earth.

Evolving From Animal to Man to God

“… it is a privilege to be born as a human
being because the human body is the most
From an Integral Yoga Psychology perspective, sophisticated and evolved material frame in
the most important factor in becoming a true which the soul can individualise. Within an

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