A person only begins to exist in this world when they become aware of their transcendental soul, that is, when they become a conscious being. Physical birth merely provides the right opportunity for this awareness to occur. Essential human nature only arises through the transcendence of natural conditioning.
Among all beings, humans are unique. Their essence is not of this world. They only begin to exist when they awaken their essence (Purusha), along with their free will and the power of action.
The second, true birth, is their act of creation, which is only possible when they recognize themselves as embodiments of the Divine consciousness. Thus, this second, true birth is nothing but the recognition of what one has always been. Therefore, it can only rightly be called awakening, as it is termed in Buddhism, or liberation from illusion, as stated in the tradition of Adi Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta.
The fundamental importance of this “second birth” is best articulated through the Gnostic vision of a bird breaking free from the egg representing the cosmos. To truly be born and exist, humans must break through the naturally given world just as a bird breaks through an egg, takes flight of its own will, and only then truly begins to exist. A human’s natural, biological birth is merely a possibility for this second, true spiritual birth – just as a bird, a common symbol of the spirit, must emerge from the egg through its own effort.
If the process of becoming were complete, and we truly existed through natural genesis, then we would not be able to become aware of ourselves, nor would existence become a personal experience through awakening. Nothing new would happen. Personality would then be impossible. It would all still be a process of natural determination, and we would be no different from animals.
Essential human nature only arises through the transcendence of natural conditioning (Prakriti). A human truly becomes human only with the cessation of identification with the body and the bodily mind and the realization of oneself in a broader context, i.e., that of the whole, divine consciousness that enables the body and mind.
Samkhya is the first and so far unsurpassed science to address the human as a conscious subject and a crucial factor of reality.
The book “Samkhya: An Ancient Science of Nature and the Human Soul” by Ivan Antic is his first, begun about 30 years ago (it was only translated and published in English two years ago). Behind the title, which speaks of an ancient Indian philosophical system, lies a map of the entire existence, explained in a completely modern and simple way. In this map, the author perfectly integrates modern physics and human essence. Samkhya teaches that nature has multiple dimensions. The human essence can be aware of all these dimensions, meaning it is essentially independent and free from everything.
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