Torkom Saraydarian

Torkom Saraydarian — Biography

Torkom Saraydarian is remembered as an Armenian-American writer, poet and musician who devoted most of his life to teaching the Ageless Wisdom and spreading a way of living built on it. He wrote about 170 books and recorded hundreds of compositions and sacred songs; his work is carried on today through foundations he set up with his daughter and an educational programme created in his name.

He was born in 1917 in Sivas to an Armenian family. At nine he began his Ageless Wisdom education under his father's guidance, in an era when people gathered in caves or outdoors for ceremonies and dramatisations meant to reveal the world's mysteries. In later years he visited monasteries, temples and mystery schools looking for answers to his questions about humanity and the universe. He was also musically trained and played the violin, piano, oud, cello and guitar. In 1959 he moved to the United States with his family from Jordan and began welcoming people into his home in Van Nuys, California; the Aquarian Educational Group grew out of those gatherings. For ten years he taught in a one-room garage without a salary.

He built his teaching on seven principles: beauty, goodness, righteousness, joy, freedom, striving and sacrificial service. He taught for more than fifty years, counselled thousands of people and wrote summaries of foundational texts such as The Secret Doctrine and the Bhagavad Gita. He died in Sedona in 1997.