The Torchbearers of Humanity– The Encyclopedia of Saints, Teachers and Masters (An Illustrated Biographical Collection of the World’s Founders of Faith, Saints and Spiritual Teachers of Outstanding Influence in Volume - 1)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

We are delighted to publish this exceptional, much needed and unique book. This illustrated biographical collection was compiled without any religious denominational or other bias, presenting the earthly careers of the founders of religions, spiritual men tors and saints who had a defining influence on the development of spirituality across the globe. The main aim of this multiple volume-long work is to fouter religious tolerance and mutual understand-ing between people of different faiths. We also hope that our book will help every reader to get to know more fully the founders and teachers of other spiritual paths outside their own. Through this col-lecrion we would like to draw attention to the fact that the whole of humanity is one big family. We have the same roots and though everyone follows their own way, all paths meet in the end. Hopeful-ly; while reading this book it will become clear that every saint and founder of faith had the same our look on the most important questions of life. Their teachings are all rooted in their historical, cultural and intellectual backgrounds. first glimpse it might seem that their teachings are of a conflict-ing nature, yet essentially they are in harmony with each other. Considering the work of the many teachers, founders of religions and saints of various callings it also becomes clear that there is no single faith that is improper to pursue. In terms of reli-gion, every human being makes his or her individ-ual choice according to their past, upbringing, and way of thinking. Every single belief system which seeks for God is equally important since their goal is to help achieve Love and Unity. With our book we wish to pass on the message that the saints and spiritual teachers bequeathed to the world: let us

value the gift of life and make the most of the time we spend in this world to do as much good as possible. Life is a tremendous gift-our teachers urged us to live life to the full and to make use of the opportunities we received from the Creator. We sincerely hope that studying the exemplary lives of prominent saints and founders of religions will reinforce peo ple's faith in goodness. Today's generations are sur rounded by countless negative and defective models. Human lives may easily go astray by following such false idols. These great teachers, "the Torchbearers of Humanity show us a way out of the dead end into which humanity has fallen. They shine ahead of us in the dark so all unrest and senseless hatred may disappear by following their examples. There were many events in the history of humanity-wars of religion, the Inquisition, the lack of understand ing between different denominations-that serve as warning signs. This is precisely why we would like to point our with this collection that every mentor and saint advocated mutual tolerance, understand ing and acceptance. Reading this book will quickly reveal that they all worked in the name of love and that they never showed animosity towards each other. These great people resemble a huge teaching staff who shared amongst each other the tasks and subjects to teach in order to provide humanity with the right kind of education that suits everyone's own personal needs. Our aim with this series is to help close the distance between the religious systems of the East and the West. We would like to see the distance berween different people, ways of thinking and religions decrease. In a certain sense there is no such thing as East or West. There are only people who, though born into different ethnic groups, face the same everyday problems and have in their hearts

something cummon that makes the members of a single family. Selecting which individuals to include in the book was an incredibly difficult taak, since we didn't want to leave out anyone who distinguished themselves in the world's religious or spiritual life. Yet what should we consider to be "distinguished" and what does the word "religious" mean exactly? Who belongs to the groups of founders of religions", "prominent saints" or "starters of movements"? On what basis were certain teachers included and oth ers omitted from this volume! What authority do we have to decide who should and shouldn't be represented in this book? First of all, we would like to acknowledge the fact that we are not infallible. Furthermore, since this book is the first volume of a series, the present compilation is not a collection of the best, the most important teachers, but rath er merely a small segment of the entire palette. We made every effort not to pay special attention to any single teacher, religion or spiritual movement. We apologize to those who do not find in this book the founders of their faith or spiritual school. Our intention is to continue The Torchbearers of Humanity as a series, offering us the opportunity to include the individuals missing from the current volume. After careful consideration we decided not to include any living teachers in the volume. This difficult decision was justified by numerous reasons. While editing the biographies included in the volume we tried to draw upon as many sources as possible, therefore the actual writing of the entries was preceded by an extensive period of research. We did our best to find authentic accounts and descriptions which were closest in time to the age in which a given saint or teacher lived. If such an effort proved to be impossible especially in case of people who died hundreds of years ago mistakes of inaccuracies may occur. In the main body of the text we tried to use the most commonly accepted spelling of important foreign words and names in the biographies, in order to make their pronunciation easier for our readers At the end of the book, besides including references and titles for further reading, we listed some Inter net addresses to provide further information and detailed material on the lives of saints and teachers. We hope that our series may truly help dose the distance between religions, further our mutual under standing of each other and assist our growth in love.

The first volume of the Torchbearers of Humanity was published in 2007. The importance of our work has been evidenced over time: it has become increas-ingly important to bring people of various religions and approaches closer to one another and facilitate religious tolerance and mutual acceptance as well as understanding that spiritually speaking, we are all brothers and sisters and part of one big family. In Hungary, the publication of the and volume of our encyclopaedia marked the beginning of various religious roundtable discus-sions, where the representatives of various religions can sit down together to maintain a dialogue with one another. Our intention is to widely disseminate the thoughts and messages of the great torchbearers of humanity, these great human beings to facilitate the establishment of a new, moral attitude in as many people as possible. As I am penning these notes, we are in the midst of a global pandemic and an economic crisis that impacts all countries in the world. These factors as well as global climate change are simultaneously influencing our lives. As a result of all this hardship and the all-encompassing crisis, many people are reconsidering the main questions in life. Humanity as a whole, and the economic and social elite in particular, must adopt a more moral and con-scious approach. Serious measures must be taken in order to sustain life on the planet, so we could live our lives in peace, harmony and love without the spectre of war. I believe that the great torchbearers of humanity can support this change and the process of adopting a new way of life based on moral com-passion. Following their teachings and model lives can help humanity recover from this crisis.

This unique, illustrated biographical collection fills a long-felt gap. It is intended as a basic work which offers an overview of the lives of founders of faith, starters of religious movements, saints and religious teachers of outstanding importance who influenced the intellectual development of the whole of the humanity. A special feature of this high quality book is that it contains hundreds of little known pictures, and extensive, carefully compiled biographies.