In 1959, Brother Mikhaël, as he was still known, made his first trip to India where he met Neem Karoli Babaji and a number of other Indian Spiritual Masters. During this visit, after undergoing a profound spiritual and physical transformation, he was given the spiritual name ‘Omraam’. On his return to France his disciples noted the striking resemblance to Peter Deunov and were spontaneously moved to call him ‘Master’.
Neem Karoli Babaji
In the autobiographical work, A Living Book, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov explains his initiatic name as follows:
‘Thus the name I was given in India, ‘Omraam’, corresponds to the two processes of solve and coagula of the alchemists: om dissolves all things, rendering them subtle, and raam materializes them, concretizes them. The name Omraam is therefore a whole process of concretization: the invisible, intangible idea that must incarnate on earth so that it can be seen and touched by the whole world.’
Om
The name ‘Omraam’ is also formed of two mantras, om and ram, which are well-known in India:
- om is the most sacred mantra of the Hindus, standing for the Absolute or the Divine, and
- the syllable ram, which was rendered as ‘raam’ in French to assist with the correct pronunciation, is the mantra denoting the fire element.
