Note from Gita: I was interviewed by Charlotte van Stuijvenberg, director of the editorial team of the LICHTWELLE magazine in Zurich, October 2011. The interview was published in German in the August 2012 issue of the magazine. Charlotte’s questions reminded me how often I have been asked these very same questions and consequently inspired me to think of my life and my philosophy a little more deeply. I decided to elaborate on my original answers and share them with you in English in an expanded version. We have placed some sections on my blog and other sections pertaining to Torkom here.

Charlotte: How would you describe your father, Torkom Saraydarian, by whom you have been taught?

Gita: You know, as a girl I never saw him as a teacher – he was just my Dad. He was a very strict and disciplined man with us children – we are 5 children – and with himself. And that is the first thing I realize when I think back about my father: Whatever he asked us to do, he did so himself. He never made himself out to be a Guru, or a perfect person, but was very humble, acknowledging his talents and his faults. So there was a lot of integrity in his life.

I would also describe him as a very ordinary man who did extraordinary things with his life, because he was continuously striving to better himself in every way. He suffered terribly as a young child as his family went through the Armenian Genocide. Most of his family members were killed and what of the family that was left continuously talked about their grief and loss. You can read in his Autobiography how he was brought up and what values were instilled in him as a child. He tried to instill these values in us as well. We were brought up to live very simple lives. We were not rich, lived in a one-room house, but I never felt deprived. In fact, I felt great freedom and greatly enjoyed of the natural surroundings around us. We had very little in material possessions, but we always had fun and beauty around us. We also were brought up with tremendous respect for the values and principles of the Great Ones. These values were not said to be religious or even particularly spiritual for us, but simply as part of a noble and integrated person’s life. Although life brought many challenges to my Father until the end, these never stopped him from meditating and studying and teaching and writing, from having fun, from playing music.

Also, he never relegated his inner growth to a future time when “he had time.” This impressed me as I matured and as I worked more and more with people who also want to better themselves. I realized the time is now; there is no “when I have the time!”

And so I saw a consistency in his life from my first memory until the end. The consistency was that there was always the joy of discovery and striving, no matter what happened in his life. That’s the extraordinary thing about him. He had many sad moments in his life and the only place you read about these is in his poetry. He never talks about them anywhere else. But in his poetry you see that complete human being, the man.

It’s interesting, I have never thought of him as a man even, a male person. A daughter does not think of her Dad as a male person. But he had passions, he fell in love, he wanted to be with a woman, all those things. But I never thought about that. So he was ordinary for me – but extraordinary in what he could do with an ordinary life. I think that is what I found extraordinary in him, that beauty in him. He always had a sparkle in his eyes. There was genuine joy in him. He was very childlike in terms of expectations and joy of discovery. As he grew older, he was more childlike in a very simple, direct, and open way. He also became even more intense and serious. He was passionate about discovery, observation, learning, and creating. He loved to give and to serve. He felt deeply about life and the events in the world and was very knowledgeable in multiple fields of life around the world. And, he knew so much on many levels. He felt deeply yet nothing stopped him. And I really like that.

Charlotte: How came that now you are Torkom’s successor?

Gita: It was interesting how it worked out. I was always “Daddy’s girl” as they say in America, and my earliest memory of my Dad is sitting on his lap when he meditated. I remember him sitting in the lotus position outside in the garden. It was not a garden in the Western sense, but a patch of a flower garden that grew on the side of our house. We also had tin-pots of flowers and plants spread around the front porch. I am not sure what I thought about at those times and how still I sat in his lap as he meditated. But seeing Dad (and Mom too) meditating in deep, silent thought did leave an impression of the serious side of life. These times still remind me of deep issues in life that I had no idea about at the time. He always concerned himself with deep issues, so I found I was attracted to what he read, said, did.

In the late 1970’s – I was going to College and studying History and getting my Master’s degree – he said to me one day: “Some day you could publish my books.” And I said: “No way.” I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to be a historian; I wanted to be a diplomat. International law and diplomacy was what I loved. And I studied and loved history, Chinese history especially.

Yes. – Time went and one day in 1987, I remember distinctly, I went to work and I said, I am giving my 30 day notice, I’m going to start my own company. I called Dad and said: “I’m starting a publishing company.” And he said: “Really?” I said: “Yes, I am quitting work.” And he said: “No! How are you going to get the money to operate?” I said: “It will come. I am not going to worry.” I really didn’t have any money saved. I just had whatever I was getting paid as my last paycheck. So that’s how I started a publishing company. And after he died, by default I became his successor; by “default” I mean, there was no one else meeting the needs that arose. So I became not just a publisher but also a teacher, and so on. I love to teach and communicate with people, so it is a natural extension of me. Now I realize that everything we are doing at TSG Foundation is part of a dream he had.

My father loved traveling and teaching. He writes about it and he said the Teaching has to spread all over the world. His travel diaries, by the way, are the most enjoyable part of reading the Autobiography. He shows such keen observation, one pointed focus, compassion, and love for others. I can imagine his mind holding so many experiences all at the same time: he is visiting, playing music, preparing lectures, observing people, answering questions, commenting on human behavior, and so on. There is deep Teaching in his travel diaries. When I read these diaries and I compare my travel experiences, I get a real chuckle from them because I am also experiencing similar challenges and events.

In what we have accomplished I see the joy of doing this work. So it may seem as if it were by default, but I love this part of life: I love to read, I love to think, I love to teach, I love to publish books. So what I do is exactly what I love to do. Just the topic happens to be a particularly spiritual topic. It is really interesting: Everything I do, meeting people, traveling etc., is what I love to do. So it all fits.

We are not asked to do something, but we make decisions to do something that has a meaning for us. Then, it is not a burden, or difficulty, it is pure joy no matter what happens. The joy is deep inside. It is like bringing out a hidden treasure a little bit more to the surface. What a great opportunity this is.

Charlotte: Yes, you are a spiritual Diplomat.

Gita: That has a lot of meaning to me. I hope I am a good one. So it happens… I think our life happens through some logic and reasoning and all the things that make you happy come to you if you want – the content can be different though.

Charlotte: Has your father built the TSG you are directing now?

Gita: No, actually, he inspired it and I built it. He formed a group called Aquarian Educational Group in the 1960’s. But after he died in 1997 it slowly stopped functioning. So TSG then took up the pace and continued.

His dream was to spread the great esoteric Wisdom Teachings and make them more accessible to larger numbers of people. His focus, as I saw it, was on the practical teaching of the materials, writing books expanding and expanding the Teaching, and publishing. So my focus started with simply publishing and distribution and I took it to the next logical level. You always need somebody to do the next layer of unfoldment. He couldn’t do all of what we are doing now. Imagine traveling and talking, writing books continuously (150 books), giving hundreds of lectures and seminars and wrote hundreds of musical compositions. He wouldn’t even give more than a few interviews – only a few – he said he had no time. He did not want publicity about himself or what he did. We did place his interviews in the Autobiography, as they are charming and so direct and focused. You can read these and see the utter simplicity and clarity and depth of his process of communication. But in general, he kept his focus, laid down his vision, and now we take up part of that vision and try to bring it to a more expanded expression.

So his main focus was teaching, writing and creating a body of knowledge for the real education of a person. His gift truly is to explain the process of putting the Esoteric Wisdom into practice in a daily, practical way without losing its essence.

My focus now is to spread the Teaching, create training courses, train others, and make TSG and our work sustainable for the future. It’s a logical next step.

ŞØỮŘĆ€: http://torkomsaraydarianblog.blogspot.in/2012/09/86-on-torkom-part-1-by-gita-saraydarian.html