SYMPOSIUMS
LECTURE
No. 6 – THE UNITY OF THE FACES OF GOD AND RELIGIOUS PEACE
THE UNITY OF THE FACES OF GOD AND RELIGIOUS PEACE
SUMMARY
“The Unity of the Faces of God and religious peace”. The one dogma of the Aumist religion can be summed up as follows: “God is One, whatever Name is given to Him. It is human beings who divide Him.” Lord HAMSAH MANARAH came to unite. If He made a journey to the heart of the different Traditions, if He founded the monastery of the Mandarom where the Statues of Christ and the Buddha face each other, and if He revealed Himself to the world as the MESSIAH of Synthesis, it was to bear witness to the Unity of the Faces of God and to open the Golden Age, the Age of peace, whose symbol is the Pyramid Temple of Unity.
TALK
Among the many challenges that people today, atheists and believers alike, must meet is tolerance and coexistence between the different religions. The life of His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH and Aumism offer many answers to the problems caused by intolerance.
The Aumist Religion has only one dogma: “the Unity of the Faces of GOD”. The thought of its Founder, His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, is universalist and fraternal. It speaks to the nobility and generosity of the heart. “Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, yellow, white and black, love one another. Never kill your brothers in the name of GOD or for the triumph of a political doctrine. Above all, kill selfishness, envy, jealousy, and moral and intellectual mediocrity.” (L’Unité des Visages de Dieu, p. 385)
The first part of this talk will be devoted to the initiatic journey of His Holiness through the different religions.
The second part: the alliance of East and West, Christ facing the Buddha in the monastery of the Mandarom: the unity of religions.
The third part: the Cosmo-Planetary Messiah of Synthesis: the Unity of the Faces of GOD, the Sevenfold Coronation, the Pyramid Temple.
I – THE INITIATIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS LORD HAMSAH MANARAH
His Holiness listened to His inner voice, which guided Him across every continent to the cradles of the main religions. His thirst for knowledge and truth, and the inner fire that set His soul ablaze, enabled Him to live His noble Ideal and to reach the Goal: Spiritual Liberation, Fusion in GOD.
He was initiated into the Kabbalah, esoteric Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Jainism and the African traditions. The study and practice of these various traditions convinced Him of the Unity of religions in their moral foundations. His spiritual journey, in a true spirit of love and renunciation, led Him to that Universal GOD who transcends doctrines and borders.
Swami Sivananda, who gave His Holiness the initiation of a renunciant monk in Rishikesh in 1961, writes: “All religions are one. Religion has many doors. Religion shows the Way to GOD… Brahman, Allah, Jehovah and Ahura Mazda are One. Truth is one.” (Le Yoga de la Divinisation, p. 83)
His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH thus founded Aumism, the religion that embraces the spiritual jewels of our humanity, to foster this current of reconciliation and encounter between the traditions.
Like all the founders of religions and the great mystics, He welcomes those who wish to progress on the path of perfection and purification with the desire to serve, without distinction of belief, race or social class.
Great religious Teachers, His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, Swami Yogeshwarananda and Jain Muni Shri Chandra Prabha Sagar, marvelled at the high level of spiritual Realisation attained by His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH. They were also won over by the synthesis of religions crystallised in a practical teaching, Aumism, and by the building of temples dedicated to the different aspects of the Divine in the Holy City of Mandarom Shambhasalem. This ideal of Unity in love and tolerance has been advocated by all those who have true knowledge.
Geshe Rabten recalls the positions of Gautama the Buddha: “Do not be sectarian towards the other religions of the world, for such an attitude above all prevents one from being happy… The Buddha often said that prejudice and discrimination are a useless veil that prevents spiritual realisation.” (Le Yoga de la Divinisation, p. 85)
Sri Ramakrishna declared: “There are many paths leading to the fountain of eternal Bliss. Each of the world’s religions is one of those paths.” (La Réintégration Divine par le Yoga, p. 299)
This advice had already been given by predecessors such as Saint Teresa of Ávila, “GOD leads souls by various paths” (Dictionnaire des mystiques, p. 288, R. Laffont), or Rumi, who goes so far as to say “impiety and faith both run on the path of GOD” (Sana’i, quoted by Rumi, in Rumi et le soufisme, E. de Vitray-Meyerovitch).
The first great initiatic title given to His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH was that of Swami HAMSANANDA Sarasvati, conferred by Sri Swami SIVANANDA Sarasvati. His Holiness defines the Swami as follows: “The Swami stands above all religions. He serves a religion of love and harmony and confines himself to the initiatic techniques that lead to fusion with the Divine. All religions are his. He belongs to all races.” (Le Maître Spirituel et le Disciple, p. 36)
Non-violence is one of the foundations of the Aumist religion. In a true spirit of respect, it is the cement that helps to build a world united beyond its differences. Gandhi placed it at the heart of his political and religious action. Buddhists pray to counterbalance hatred and violence.
Non-violence, or “ahimsa” in Sanskrit, together with respect for all living beings, is a fundamental element of Jainism. In this tradition, the great Jain Sage Muni Shri Chandra Prabha Sagar gave His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH the titles of Acharya, “the One who teaches”, and Adinath, “the First Patron, the Protector”. According to Jainism, “every person should treat other beings as he would wish to be treated himself. In joy as in pain, we should regard all creatures as ourselves and refrain from harming them…” (Yoga et Sagesse, p. 256)
This non-violence concerns acts, words and thoughts. It therefore requires a high degree of self-mastery and self-knowledge. It encourages us to develop the sense of forgiveness and benevolence, and to tolerate the faults of others, or at least whatever might displease us.
II – THE ALLIANCE OF EAST AND WEST
More and more religious figures, scientists, politicians, artists and national and international bodies are working to counter religious intolerance and fanaticism through symposiums, forums and meetings of all kinds. For example, we read in the daily newspaper Le Monde of 22 March 2005 that the Alsace Regional Council encourages and funds interreligious and intercultural projects. “The aim is to support events whose clearly stated purpose is to allow, in a spirit of respect and tolerance, a better understanding of others, of their religion, their spiritual life and their beliefs”… in response to the sharp rise in racist, anti-religious and xenophobic acts. Indeed, in our time the persecution of religions, and religious fanaticism too, remain the cause of much suffering and a pretext for satisfying the basest impulses of human nature. Genocides and the endless cycles of war have their origin in ignorance, greed, attachment to evil and contempt for what is different. If society wishes to evolve, and even to survive, it must banish all totalitarianism and no longer declare war in the name of GOD.
The Mandarom, as the Temple of the Universal Religion, spreads across the planet the message of unity transmitted by His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH. This message is given concrete form in particular by the erection, in the Holy City of Mandarom Shambhasalem, of the statue of the Buddha facing that of the Cosmic Christ. “The gaze of Christ fused with that of the Buddha is the symbol of tolerance and of the coming together of peoples.” (L’Unité des Visages de Dieu, p. 96) These statues, like the other temples of the monastery, crystallise prayers and thoughts of love and brotherhood and radiate them endlessly for the benefit of the greatest number, to raise the level of consciousness of humanities.
Aumism is the path of synthesis. His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH writes: “A synthesis is necessary in order to strengthen the universalist and unitist tendency of a world.”
The Mission of Aumism, the Universal religion, “is to build the Temple of Religion, combining the science of reason and the evolution of intuition in a wonderful marriage of matter and spirit” (L’Aumisme, la Doctrine de l’Âge d’Or, p. 171).
Religion cannot be a petrified fossil in its museum, caressed by nostalgic eyes. It must once again become the vigorous impulse that stimulates the flowering of the arts, poetry, architecture and the sciences, all of them opportunities for encounters, exchanges and sharing that bear fruit for the community. The universal values conveyed by Aumism allow everyone to put tolerance into practice in the realities of daily life, whether at work or in the family.
The Unity of religions.
His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH explains that “religions are the varied and symbolic expressions of one and the same transcendent reality” (Le Yoga de la Vie Pratique, p. 279).
The unity of religions does not imply a single religion for a standardised humanity. It is the coexistence of many religions whose teachings respect men and women in their richness and their aspirations. “All religions acknowledge the Divinity of man’s Essence” (Le Yoga de la Vie Pratique, p. 19).
Each person follows their own plan of evolution and fulfils their mission as best they can. This freedom of conscience and respect for each person in the worship of their choice is the basis of the happiness and individual rights that states and constitutions are supposed to guarantee to their citizens.
Sri Aurobindo very rightly thinks that “the inner spirit is indeed One, but more than any other, the spiritual life demands freedom and variety in its expression and its means of development” (Yoga et Sagesse, p. 278).
“Everyone,” says His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, “has the right to worship GOD as he sees and understands Him, while nonetheless being willing to understand too, even superficially, the other messages of the Divine, which spring from the same luminous source” (L’Aumisme, la Doctrine de l’Âge d’Or, p. 36).
An Aumist is not obliged to abandon their religion of origin; they deepen it through the study of the other traditions. Deepening each tradition convinces them of the sterility of theological quarrels. The search for the essential in the expression of one’s divinity and Unity in prayer are the true marks of the elevation of souls. Above all, it is a matter of freeing oneself from duality, because GOD dwells in each of us despite outward appearances.
The Hexamide is the Aumist symbol of the Unity of the faces of religions. This six-edged pyramid symbolises the return of all religions to their original unity. They are represented by the colours of the rainbow, which merge into the white of synthesis of the creative Word OM, at the summit.
III – THE COSMO-PLANETARY MESSIAH OF SYNTHESIS: THE UNITY OF THE FACES OF GOD
The Unity of the Faces of God
Over the millennia, God has manifested to humanity under different Faces and with different Names, adapting His Message to different eras, different countries and different mentalities. But people forgot that “no one can limit God to the single Face of one body of flesh” (Le Flambeau d’Unité, p. 71), and they made war in His Names.
To put an end to all this violence, His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, as the COSMO-PLANETARY MESSIAH of SYNTHESIS, came to bear witness that God is One, whatever Name is given to Him.
“So that in future human beings cannot use the multiplicity of the Faces of God on Earth as a pretext for quarrelling,” He says, “all these Faces have fused into a single Face.” (L’Unité des Visages de Dieu, p. 49)
That is why on 22 August 1990 the public Ceremony of the Sevenfold Coronation took place, the images of which you will have the privilege of seeing shortly.
During this Ceremony, His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH successively donned the Crowns of the different awaited Faces of God:
– the Buddha Maitreya in Buddhism,
– the Imam Mahdi in Islam,
– Kalki in Hinduism,
– Melchizedek in Judaism,
– the Cosmic Christ in Christianity.
At the end of the ceremony, the Messiah donned the Tiara of the Diamond of Unity, fusing the Energies of all these Faces of God. “The one who wears this Tiara of the Diamond of Unity is recognised in all the Golden Age worlds as the Emanation and total Incarnation of the COSMO-PLANETARY MESSIAH.” (Je suis l’Avatar Lumineux de Synthèse, p. 415)
The Pyramid Temple of the Unity of the Faces of God
The Aumist religion has only one dogma: that of the Unity of the Faces of God, which is the basis of tolerance and religious peace.
This dogma is to find its concrete expression in the building of the Pyramid Temple of the Unity of the Faces of God, an architectural Synthesis of the different Traditions symbolising the return to the original Unity.
This temple will be open to all faiths and to all people without distinction. It will serve as a catalyst for divine energies, to help souls transform themselves and rise back to GOD.
“The Law of Evolution will structure souls in an immense pyramid, bringing them back to GOD the Creator of all things, and it is to remind everyone of this absolute necessity to evolve that this Pyramid Temple of the new era is being built on Earth.” (Une Loi pour Détruire le Mal, p. 281)
While it is the Temple of the ALMIGHTY GOD present in each of us, it is also the dwelling place of GOD incarnate through the Lineage of the HIEROKARANTINE, protector of the Unity of the Faces of GOD.
CONCLUSION
The teachings, philosophy and history of the Aumist religion are imbued with this respect for all the religions and all the beliefs of this Earth. His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH stresses that “the multiplicity of religions meets the diverse tendencies of peoples; it conceals a common trunk, an esoteric core, shared fundamental principles” (Yoga et Sagesse, p. 277). We may therefore entertain serious hopes of a change in mentalities regarding the necessary Unity of Religions around their common foundations.
Learning to forgive, freeing oneself from wrong actions, respecting difference, and developing non-violence and the feeling of Unity with the different religions are thus qualities to be cultivated in the garden of tolerance.
As Aumists are accustomed to do, “let us join in thought all those who pray as we do in Temples, Churches, Mosques, Synagogues, Ashrams and Gompas. Let us feel at one with all those who pray for Peace in the world and for the spiritual progress of humanity.” OM
“Let us meditate on the Unity of the Faces of GOD: Unity of religions, Unity of the Word of GOD and Unity of the Faces of GOD are inseparable from the coming of the Golden Age. May the Will of the GOD of Unity, present in every religion, be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. And may the saving and reuniting Golden Age come. OM AMEN AMIN AUM” (Meditation on the Unity of the Faces of GOD, Le Flambeau d’Unité, p. 420)
Bibliography (works in French):
– The 22 Books of His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH
– J. Chevalier (ed.), Les religions (C.E.P.L.)
– M.-M. Davy (ed.), Encyclopédie des mystiques (R. Laffont)
– E. de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Rumi et le soufisme (Le Seuil)
– F. Lenoir and Y. T. Masquelier (eds.), Encyclopédie des religions (Bayard)
