The Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, A Solar Messenger
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (1900 — 1986) brought a Teaching in the tradition of the great sages of humanity. He explains the wonderful laws of life and offers numerous methods for applying them, leading us to a better understanding of ourselves.
The Legacy
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov left a legacy that has been widely known in the West since the middle of the 20th century and whose influence is largely felt today. Through his radiance, his example and his Teaching, he has shown countless people the path of inner blossoming. Many people around the world find in this Teaching a message of hope and an inspiration for a better conduct of their own lives. The Master was also a real reformer, who always worked to help and enlighten those who sought truth, bringing them new methods adapted to modern life.
The Master was convinced that peace on earth among all people is not only possible but indispensable, and that most problems in modern day society will only be resolved when an ideal of brotherhood becomes humanity’s main objective. If all human beings are eventually able to consider themselves united by fraternal links, if they rediscover and re-establish their spiritual dimension and origin, then universal brotherhood is possible, where everyone, regardless of origin, social rank or belief, can live in harmony within themselves, with others and with nature.
Biographical sketch
Born on January 31st, 1900 in the small village of Serbtzy in Macedonia, he later lived in Varna in Bulgaria. His early years were marked by great difficulties: the loss of his father, poverty, constant social unrest and wars were all opportunities for him to develop his willpower, to deepen his spiritual knowledge and to reinforce both his love and his desire to be of use to his fellow human beings.
At the age of 17, he met Peter Deunov, the spiritual Bulgarian Master who was very well known at the time in Bulgaria and whose reputation had spread well beyond his own country. For twenty years, the exchanges between Master and disciple were abundant and intense. After his university studies, he became a teacher and then a school principal. At the same time, he faithfully followed the Teaching of Master Peter Deunov. An avid reader of books on spirituality, he experimented on himself with the spiritual truths he heard from his master.
A Biography of The Master
His arrival in France
In 1937, Peter Deunov sensed that the political troubles would bring with them a ban on all associations of a spiritual nature. He asked his disciple Mikhaël to leave for France in order to preserve and continue his work and to make this Teaching known, while developing it and adapting it to the new social conditions. In spite of difficulties and ordeals, Brother Mikhaël, as he was then called, remained faithful to the mission he had received and tirelessly and selflessly gave his love, his knowledge and his attention to all those he met.
His voyage to India
In 1959, having worked for more than twenty years at the task given to him by Peter Deunov, he left on a voyage to India where he spent a year. On the 17th of June, 1959, he met the great Babaji whose role had long been that of a guide for prophets and Masters as described in Yogananda’s book Autobiography of a Yogi. In circumstances which he never fully disclosed, he was given the name Omraam by three mysterious Masters. During this visit, he met many other gurus, including Ananda Moyi Ma (1896-1982), Swami Nityananda (1896-1961), Anagarika Govinda (1898-1985) and Swami Sivananda (1887-1963). Until now, Brother Mikhaël had refused to be addressed as Master. He had always regarded himself as the disciple of his own Master, Peter Deunov. Following his stay in India, everything changed. His spiritual brothers and sisters, who had been following him for 22 years, insisted on paying him due respect, and he finally agreed to be called ‘Master’.
The many countries visited
Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov traveled extensively and visited Germany, England, Bulgaria, Canada, Ceylon, Egypt, Spain, the United States (California, Florida, Texas, New York, Washington D.C., Hawaii, and more) as well as the Caribbean and Hawaii, Ethiopia, Finland, Greece, Holland, Hong-Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and Yugoslavia. Usually, he spent the end of the year and the beginning of the New Year in Paris at the Center Izgrev. He then went to Switzerland to the center Vidélinata, above Vevey, for several weeks in February and March, until 1981. He also stayed in Canada for a short stay in 1981, for several weeks in 1984, and then for two months in 1985. For the Easter period, he went to the Domaine du Bonfin (in the South of France) where he lived and gave talks during the international summer congresses (July to September). In autumn, he regularly retreated in the Pyrenees (France), to a place called Castelrama, above the village of Trassoulas.
Key biographical dates
and Brother Mikhaël on his right.
1900 January 31: birth
1907 Spring: destruction of his native village and departure for Varna (Bulgaria)
1908 October: death of his father
1915 Illumination
1917 He hears the “music of the spheres”
Winter, first meeting with the Bulgarian Master Peter Deunov
1923 – 1930 Sofia, university studies – obtains a degree in education, psychology and philosophy and attends courses in different faculties, including medicine.
Teaches in secondary school near Sofia.
1930 – 1932 Director of a school.
1937 July: arrival in France. Private talks in various apartments.
1938 January: first public talk (on “The Second Birth”), in a hall at Place de la Sorbonne in Paris
June: first public talk in Lyon, on spiritual galvanoplasty and prenatal education
1944 December 27: death of Peter Deunov at the age of 80
1945 First fraternal group in Switzerland, a country where he stayed frequently, especially in February – March
Christmas: publication of the first book, entitled “Love, Wisdom, Truth”, with an introduction by Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher
1947 Purchase of the “Izgrev” property in Paris where talks and meetings take place until 1984
1948 January 16: the association Fraternité Blanche Universelle is officially created
January 21: Brother Mikhaël is arrested on false charges and imprisoned
1950 March: liberation, followed in 1960 by his official rehabilitation
Mid-March: resumption of contact with the Brotherhood at Izgrev
1953 Opening of the first Congress at the Domaine du Bonfin, on the Côte d’Azur (Var – France)
1959 February: departure for India
1960 February: return from India
1961 – 1985 Frequent trips around the world
Stays in various countries where he gave hundreds of talks
Meetings with high-ranking religious and spiritual leaders
Thousands of private appointments
1972 Publication of the first volume of the Complete Works
1986 December 25: Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov left this earthly plane at the Domaine du Bonfin, France
The Shin symbol
In a photograph taken during a meditation after lunch (autumn, 1958), a form could be distinguished over Brother Mikhaël’s head: the cabbalistic symbol of the Shin, whose vertical and horizontal lines represent the masculine and feminine principles.
The phenomenon, which could have been attributed to unusual reflections of light, was remarkable because the sacred symbol was so perfectly formed. In the brotherhood it was seen as an expression of the equilibrium that reigns in a human being who has developed the two principles within himself.
The name “Omraam”
In The Mystery of Light, a book about Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, Georg Feuerstein explains that the name ‘Omraam’ is formed of two mantras, om and ram, which are well-known in India. He states that:
- om is the most sacred mantra of the Hindus, representing the Absolute or the Divine
and the second syllable
- ram, which was written ‘raam’ in French to assist with the correct pronunciation, is the mantra denoting the fire element.
In the autobiographical work, A Living Book, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov explains his initiatic name as follows:
A True Master
He whom his disciples henceforth called Master, in the eastern sense of the term, which implies self-mastery and the talent of a pedagogue, liked to say that a true Master is a person who knows the truth, who understands perfectly well the laws and the principles of existence and respects them. A Master also has the will and the ability to master his inner world and to use this mastery for the sole purpose of “manifesting all the qualities and virtues of selfless love”.
From 1938 until 1986, he gave more than 5000 talks, first in France (in Paris, Lyon and later at the Bonfin, near Fréjus close to the Mediterranean coast) and in Switzerland, then in Canada, the United States, India, Sweden and Norway. The essential core of this abundant source of spiritual, esoteric and psychological knowledge is published by Prosveta, which has a presence on all five continents.
The Master as pedagogue of Initiatic Science
In order to help those who came to listen to him and to live his Teaching, he assumed the role of pedagogue, conveying a clear understanding of the human structure with its different bodies and its two natures – the higher (or, in his terminology, the ‘individuality’) and the lower (or the ‘personality’) – knowledge of which, he said, is the key for resolving all of life’s problems.
Transmission
Until his death on December 25th, 1986, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov gave not only thousands of talks, but also met with countless individuals and made many journeys throughout the world. He was a ‘bearer of light’, life-giving and loving, enthusiastic and accessible, who worked tirelessly for the wellbeing of everyone. He was an example, demonstrating perfect consistency of thought, word and action. Deeply anchored in unity, in the Self, and receptive to the subtle worlds, he was at the same time turned towards others, working at the core of everyday life for humanity, the whole earth and the universe. Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov can rightly be considered to be among the authentic, realized Masters who incarnate over the centuries in various countries.
His Teaching: A vision of universal life and brotherhood
(or Initiatic Science adapted to our time)
The teaching of Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov is based on a profound knowledge of the human being and his or her place in the universe, with an emphasis on intuition and simplicity over superficial intellectual knowledge. Aware of the demands of working on oneself, he never stopped encouraging his disciples, inciting them to continue along the spiritual path leading to inner unity. What mattered to him was what a person lived and experienced. With regard to this, he liked to say that it is not by analyzing an orange in all its aspects that we can know it, but by tasting it.
His Teaching is universal, and the many methods he gave are increasingly relevant to the changing mentalities and problems posed by the conditions of modern life. His constant preoccupation was always to be useful, to help people find in themselves the forces placed there by the Creator and to participate in the realization of a united global family, in which each person is a citizen of the universe. In this way, his Teaching invites all human beings throughout the whole world, regardless of skin color, nationality, gender, religion or race, to achieve a life of harmony and light, for the good of all.
A solar teaching
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov described the emergence of a new consciousness using the term “solar”, based on the image of the sun, which distributes its light, warmth and life to all beings without distinction. Helping human beings to rediscover their own spiritual dimension while finding their own stature in the world they inhabit was a central theme in his teaching. All his works distributed by Prosveta bear this message.
A High Ideal
Master Peter Deunov gave the following rule: ‘Use kindness as the basis of your life, justice as balance, wisdom as limit, love as delight, and truth as light.’
Kindness is the only solid basis on which to build a structure; even if this edifice is beautiful and intelligent, it will collapse if kindness, this benevolence we are capable of showing to all beings, does not support it.
Justice is a quality of balance; to be fair, as illustrated by scales, is knowing how to keep things in balance at all times.
Wisdom is a limit, a barrier that can protect us from the external and internal enemies which threaten us.
Love gives us a taste for things; even if we have riches, knowledge and fame, how insipid life would seem without love!
Truth is the light that illuminates our path, thanks to which we move ahead without the risk of losing our way or falling.
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