Paul Twitchell

Paul Twitchell

The ECK Master who founded modern-day Eckankar. His spiritual name is Peddar Zaskq, and he is sometimes affectionately known as Paulji.

Born in Kentucky in the early part of the twentieth century, Paul explored a variety of professions in his early life - writer, promoter, military man. Yet his destiny was guided by an ancient line of spiritual teachers known as the Vairagi Adepts. Notable among them were Sudar Singh and Rebazar Tarzs.

A spirited nonconformist, Paul called himself a Cliff Hanger, an individual who lives in a high state of spiritual freedom and self-responsibility. Yet years came and went before his life-changing experience of God-Realization in 1957. In October 1965, he became the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master.

Paul's Mission

The high teachings of ECK had been scattered to the four corners of the world. Various writers had pieces of the true teachings but often attached strings - such as requiring students to become vegetarian or to spend many hours a day in meditation if they wanted to be true followers on the path to God. This was wrong for our day and age.

Paul Twitchell's mission was to gather the scattered fragments of truth and restore them via the body of teachings now known as Eckankar. Paul ventured into a wide range of spiritual traditions under different teachers.

In keeping with his mission, Paul showed himself to be the master compiler. He gathered up the golden teachings strewn around the world and released them from the cultural trappings and social aims which limited their spiritual radiance. He reoriented these fragments to show the direct path home to God.

By the time of his passing in 1971, Paul had established Eckankar as a world teaching and set the stage for Consciousness Five.

Inner-Plane Libraries

The fountainhead from which the ECK writings spring is the Ancient Gospel, the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, compiled by the Nine Silent Ones, whose main duty is to gather up and sort out the unchanging laws that enfold every ripple in life.

On the inner planes are libraries connected to the Golden Wisdom Temples. The library alongside the main Temple on the Astral Plane is an enormous place of many roomy departments, much like the US Library of Congress, providing a comprehensive source of books and materials.

Good researchers - such as Julian Johnson, Paul Brunton, Carl Jung, and others - have come in and selected the paragraphs that suited their audience. Few knew the source of their inspiration.

But there is one who did. Paul's mission was to clarify, reveal, translate, and illuminate the sacred ECK teachings to all.

And Paul's great work continues on. Every article or Wisdom Note by the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master is taken from the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad on the inner planes. The writings of Sri Harold Klemp, including over 130 books, continue to expand the body of spiritual wealth on earth.