'Hermes' sat there in contemplation as his disciple requested he make him immortal. Smiling, he explained how he himself did not possess immortality so how could he bestow it upon his disciple, please reconsider and ask again.

 

'Master' the disciple again requested 'when the soul is reborn it forgets its past life, please master give me the gift of remembering who i am, life after life, please grant me the boon of uninterrupted awareness across all of my incarnations'.

 

The great god of wisdom, worshipped throughout Greece was pleased with his disciples request as for once it was not a request to become an alchemist turning iron into gold and water into wine and so happily he granted him this request.

 

 

'Mnesarchus' was a gem dealer who in 570 visited the oracle of Delphi seeking advice and receiving auspicious news he was informed his wife was pregnant and the child would be the best of his generation and his name remembered forever.

 

The son was born and immediately something was different, the way he stared without any confusion in his eyes, as though fully aware of who he was and what was more disturbing is he gave the impression he also knew who you was.

 

They named the child 'Pythagoras' in honour of the prophet 'Pythia' who predicted his birth and a name meaning one possessing the assembly ( agora ) of apollo ( pythia ) so named as Apollo slayed the monstrous snake named 'pytho'.

 

 

Pythagoras already knew who he was, the benediction given to him by his guru, the great Hermes, had come to pass and observing the new world in which he was born, he still saw himself as 'Aethelides' from his previous life.

 

Upon the island of Samos, his father spared no expense in educating his son who studied with 'Anaximander' the great physicist and 'Thales' the 'father of science' who told him 'you must go Egypt and learn from teachers who taught me'.

 

Thales taught him the disciplines he would need in Egypt by becoming a vegetarian, renouncing alcohol and reducing sleep and in this way the great Pythagoras prepared for his journey which took him to the lands of Egypt.

 

 

Pythagoras went first to Phoenicia and the caves of Mount Carmel where he spent many months engaged in solitary meditation and from there he sailed to the mysterious lands of Egypt where he would study for some twenty two years.

 

Pythagoras visited important temples of Egypt and its sages, he stayed at the learned schools as he passed some twenty two years in the study of astronomy and astrology as well as geometry and the ancient spiritual mysteries of Egypt.

 

Next stop was Babylon and the priests known as 'Magi' who taught him music and mathematics and though Pythagoras may or may not have reached India it seems within the lands of Babylon he would study with the Brahmans of India.

 

 

Pythagoras had reached the age of fifty six and his mind turned towards home and as he journeyed towards the lands of Greece he was enthusiastic to share the wisdom he accumulated over twenty years within the lands of his birth.

 

Upon Samos he told fishermen 'if i tell you how many fish you caught will you do as i suggest' they agreed and finding him correct he told them to throw them back into the Sea and compensating them with money his name quickly spread.

 

Pythagoras spent most of his time meditating in the caves of Samos, emerging to teach mathematics of astronomy, calculations of the eclipses and motions of the planets as he explained the cosmos in terms of mathematics and science.

 

 

'Cosmos' whose original meaning is that which has 'order' that which has 'harmony' a word which comes from Pythagoras and another word is 'philosophy' meaning a lover ( philo ) of wisdom ( sophia ) also comes from him.

 

Pythagoras decided to move to Southern Italy where he built his spiritual community of Croton and as more people came to benefit from his teachings the crowds became so huge that his community was compared to a small city.

 

Although he practiced as a celibate student for most of his life Pythagoras had no problems about entering married life and as a great believer in strong families and protecting the family unit he went on to raise several children of his own.

 

 

Pythagoras asked his disciples to meditate on numbers, ratios, geometric forms, musical chords, encouraging students to appreciate order and structure of the universe whose patterns lay at the root of all phenomena.

 

Pythagoras never thought that life and the universe came from numbers he was simply observing how mathematics was expressed throughout the order and harmony of the universe.

 

Pythagorean vision of mathematics and nature became the foundation of western science which was carried further by Newton who created a mechanistic view of the universe though each of them recognised a spiritual cause behind it all.

 

 

Pythagoras became ever popular as the people delighted in his wisdom and ability to transform souls and soon people were asking him and his disciples to arbitrate disputes, a move which became the beginning of the end for Pythagoras.

 

Pythagoras was seen as meddling into affairs which some thought he had no business, and soon a group of thugs attacked the ashram, burning everything and killing everyone and it is concluded they also killed Pythagoras.

 

Pythagoras, the great mathematician, lived the life of a yogi, searching out the soul through meditation, understanding the process of reincarnation and maintaining himself with simple, vegetarian foods.

 

Based upon the best selling book 'The Lost Masters' by Linda Johnsen.