The Grail Message - About the Author

Abd-ru-shin

Oskar Ernst Bernhardt (1875-1941)

Author of The Grail Message - "In the Light of Truth"

Before the man of today reaches for a book, he would like to know whether it is worth his while to occupy himself with it. Above all, he wants to know something about the author. Publishing houses tend to make provision for this by describing the career development of the author on the book cover.

In the Grail Message, Abd-ru-shin addresses this issue with the statement: "Each inwardly free human being will always evaluate a teaching through what it offers, and not who brings it. - Gold is gold whether in the hand of a prince or a beggar."

These words, the validity of which is incontestable, clearly show how easily human beings of today allow themselves to be led by sales practices. How well a writer is known, is largely a matter of advertisement.

For a book titled "In The Light of Truth ", that seeks to enlighten human beings on the real purpose of life on earth, a different yardstick will have to apply. New realizations must laboriously push through the rigid opinions of many human beings.

For the simple reason that Truth goes far beyond principles to which human beings had held on till now, grasping it requires higher abilities, skills that are not generally taught in our schools.

Every human being will probably have had the experience in the course of his/her lifetime, that there are events, the fateful meaning of which, in retrospect, appear to be the working of a higher guidance. And that is what it comes to, when it is based on spiritual - not perhaps intellectually learnable- values: the readiness to permit oneself to be guided, to become inwardly more open, able to become more receptive to be allowed to receive things far above the earthly concepts of space and time.

Abd-ru-shin was born as Oskar Ernst Bernhardt on 18th April 1875. He grew up in his birthplace, Bischofwerda, near Dresden in Germany. He spent his childhood there, as well as went to school and learned a trade.

At this point, he left the loving shelter of his parents' house and dedicated Himself to learning a trade as a salesman. Through this commercial activity, He got the opportunity to travel to different countries of Europe and North America. The journeys prompted him to write down events he witnessed, impressions as well as personal experiences in the course of interaction with fellow human beings. He combined his vocation as a salesman with his ever-growing tendency to put down his thoughts in writing.

After living in London (England) for a few years, at the outbreak of the World War I, he found himself in the unpleasant situation of a German living in enemy territory. This led to his internment in a prison camp on the Isle of Man, from where he was later freed in 1919 after a few years.
Leaving England, he went back to Germany and settled into a new life in the proximity of Dresden. He still combined his salesmanship skills with those of an author. At this time, he met the woman to whom he had always felt spiritually drawn and who would also now be connected to his path in life.

The consciousness of Abd-ru-shin and his mission on this earth awakened in Oskar Ernst Bernhardt in 1921. With this recognition, he ceased his activities as a salesman, to be able to dedicate himself completely to Abd-ru-shin's tasks.

Almost two years later, in 1923, Oskar Ernst Bernhardt published His first essays under the name of Abdruschin, calling mankind to a spiritual awakening. These essays were initially bound in booklet form, titled "Gralsblatter" (Grail Leaflets).

In the course of 1926, a collection of these essays was published in book form, with the title "In the Light of Truth" - New Grail Message - by Abdruschin.

In later editions, the "New" in relation to Grail Message was removed, so that from 1931, it was simply called The Grail Message. The spelling of the author's name also changed on the publications. From 1937, the new way of writing Abd-ru-shin was used on all printed works.

In addition to the publication of the Gralsblatter and the Grail Message, Abd-ru-shin also gave public lectures in the beginning, to share his thoughts with human beings. As a result of the depth of the essays, the composition of which Abd-ru-shin felt himself more compelled towards, further public lectures were gradually discontinued.

Abd-ru-shin's essays caused an inner spiritual upheaval in many people, compelling an assessment of every aspect of one's life. The search, brought about through Abd-ru-shin's explanatory essays, grew constantly, and also called for a center of anchorage.

Led by an inner guidance, Abd-ru-shin sought a place on earth that would become the point of anchorage for a Message from the Grail. As in all things propelled by a guidance that is not of this world, it required corresponding earthly help to manifest. Through a sales advert offering a house in the secluded mountain region of North Tyrol (Austria), Abd-ru-shin recognized the place he was looking for.

Abd-ru-shin acquired this house along with the surrounding land and moved there with his wife and her children in February 1928. This new residence on Vomperberg - a high -lying plateau over the Inn Valley - became the central place where in future readers will be able to have access to the Grail Message.

This seclusion did not last for long, for readers of His Grail Message increasingly longed to be allowed to live in Abd-ru-shin's vicinity. Thus, from the beginning there was an increasing number of single apartments around Abd-ru-shin, and these grew to become the Grail Settlement.

Abd-ru-shin's essays, which explain the purpose of life in a clear, matter-of-fact, thought-provoking and understandable way, also lead over and above all to a sensing of GOD, as had never before been known to humanity. Fundamental to this is the recognition of and attention to the natural Laws of Creation, which are the more discernible expression of the Will of GOD.

Out of the gratitude of those who recognized a change in the life they lived till then, came the urgent desire to honor the Creator in an appropriate way and to thank Him. For this, Abd-ru-shin provided the possibility for Hours of Worship and in a higher form, the Grail Festivals. The Grail Festivals, which should become a conscious experiencing of Divine Grace for every spiritually open human being, still today constitute the highest point in the course of the year for every reader of the Grail Message.

Abd-ru-shin's greatest aspiration for human beings was that his essays would bestir them to a more conscious and freer life. The individual human being should recognize that he alone is responsible for his life and above all for his entire spiritual existence. To this is also Abd-ru-shin's entreaty to free oneself from all existing compulsions and restrictions, in order to be able to experience one's life consciously. The assertion that there was no need for an earthly organization between a human being and the Creator did not go down well with the leaders of the churches and this provoked huge enmity towards Abd-ru-shin.

Abd-ru-shin's call to independent thinking and comprehensive examining that will move human beings away from the controlled rigid opinion also displeased the political ruling class. Thus in 1936 Nazi (National Socialist) Germany, the sale of the Grail Message was banned and the publishing house in Munich, which existed for the purpose of printing the Grail Message, had to be dissolved.

When in March 1938 Germany annexed Austria, this brought an end to the way things bad been for Abd-ru-shin and his Grail Message. Abd-ru-shin was imprisoned by the Nazis and detained in Innsbruck. The allegations and accusations that gave rise to the imprisonment finally proved untrue and this led to Abd-ru-shin's release. The occupation of the Grail Settlement, as well as his family's personal property remained confiscated by the Austrian State. Abd-ru-shin and his family had to leave Austria and received compulsory residence in East Germany. All other residents were banished from the Grail Settlement. Further dissemination of the Grail Message, as well as personal contact with Abd-ru-shin, were to a large extent forcibly prevented by the National Socialist Party leaders.

Abd-ru-shin's Message from out of the Grail reached very many readers in different countries and brought about a change in the daily lives of these individuals. Life and experiencing became more conscious, so that mankind's values - such as harmonious interaction with fellow human beings - increased. The perception of spiritual guidance also helped these human beings to bear the difficult fateful years of World War II.

Abd-ru-shin, the starting point of every spiritual activity, always strove to find ways and words to explain the importance of spiritual values to human beings. By irrefutable reasoning, he proved that human beings are of spiritual origin. A large majority of human beings still failed to heed this fact, leading to the current state of the World.

The essays Abd-ru-shin wrote between 1923 and 1937 ended up in different publications like Gralsblatter, The Grail Message, After Calls to the Grail Message, as well as single lectures. Experiences of the numerous possibilities of publication, as well as the experiences of readers of the Grail Message induced Abd-ru-shin to revise his lectures.

Between 1939 and 1940, He devised the setting copy for the future format of the Grail Message. It should reach the readers in three volumes. The very first print that would again become available to the readers came out in 1949. Under the name Abd-ru-shin, Oskar Ernst Bernhardt brought mankind the Message from out of the Grail. The task on earth was thus fulfilled.

Mankind did not accept the help, which Abd-ru-shin offered. Abd-ru-shin laid down his earthly cloak on 6th December 1941 with this experience of rejection by mankind. The burial of his body took place in the cemetery of his birthplace, Bischofswerda.

Abd-ru-shin's widow, Frau Maria Bernhardt, was allowed to return to the Grail Settlement after the war in 1945. The compulsory expropriation of property was revoked, and Frau Maria Bernhardt became the rightful owner of the Grail Settlement.

In the summer of 1949, it was finally possible to transfer Abd-ru-shin's earthly body from Bischofswerda to Vomperberg, albeit under very difficult circumstances. A tomb in the shape of a pyramid was built for this purpose, and Abd-ru-shin's earthly body was re-interred in the tomb.

Abd-ru-shin was a strict opponent of every dogma as well as sectarianism. He resolutely rejected all emerging personality cult. The only important thing for him was that he lived what he conveyed to readers in his grail Message.

Through personal experience, every serious reader will thereby also recognize Abd-ru-shin's spiritual origin.