2 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 4 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 8 Fig. 2. The Celestial Hierarchy: God; Unitas simplex; Principium; Terminus a quo; Fons essentiarum; Actus primus; Ens entium; Natura naturalis; 1. The Divine Mind; 2. Seraphim; 3. Cherubim; 4. Dominions; 5. Thrones; 6. Powers – Maiestatis; 7. Principalities; 8. Virtues; 9. Archangels; 10. Angels. After that the planetary system follows down to the Earth, the present home of humankind (R. Fludd 1617). Dionysius Areopagite (Parker 1897) describes the hierarchy of beings as: Seraphim – Fiery ones; Cherubim – Fullness of knowledge; Thrones – Divine seats, purifiers; Dominions – order an justice; Virtues – grace and valour; Powers – providential aid; Principalities – Divine Lordship; Archangels – imprinters of the Divine Seal; Angels – purify and uplift. As indicated above, humans were created on Janaloka (Unknown 1840, book 2, chap. 7, 212–214). Adelma von Vay (1924, 74–78) relates a more in-depth spiritual history of events that led to the appearance of humans. The flow of events is so complex that it would not be possible to detail it here. Still, we can work with the model that up to a point, freshly appearing humans were living in accordance with the plan of the Creator (thus in a fully dharmic way), they did not need an ahamkāra, as they did not create karma. However, after some of the humans (just like some of the first-born ones) started a life that was in discord with the original plan, they started creating karma (Vay 1924, 80–84). The ahamkāra that was created byMahat at the Mahar level of existence (Unknown 1840, book 2, chap. 1, 14–15; chap. 7, 212–215) enabled a record of karmas and personality traits, specially as with the increasing volume of karmas, the humans had to start working on their karmas on a lower and lower level of existence, which was a process similar to the evolution scheme of the evolving creation from Parasamvit to the appearance of the 24 tattvas– used by some schools of philosophy (Woodroffe 1978; Timčák 2004). Thus, at a point the kanchukas came to effect and at the Bhuloka the degrees of freedom available to humans became very limited and people are very much governed by karma. The Indian tradition knows about humans who after enormous effort, tapas, could become deva-like, but within the hierarchy shown in Fig. 2, it is not known that a human could become an angel or other higher being. On the other hand, there are hints that an angelic being could incarnate to the Bhuloka. Some rishis and yogis, who would not need to incarnate on the earth do so in order to help sādhakas and the world. Similarly, Messiahs also incarnate for the same purpose. So, it is interesting to rethink, whether samādhi or jñāna means a transfer into Janaloka or it goes beyond the lokas into the Absolute. Thus, the question is – would humans be
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