Shiv Talwar paid his tribute to the late Professor Horvath with this article presenting a personal perspective on the comprehensiveness of URAM, Professor Horvath’s vision of the URAM project and how this vision, in fact, encompasses the SHEN project of education in the spiritual heritage of humanity: I am neither a student nor a colleague of the late Professor Tibor Horvath; I am simply an admirer. My introduction to him was strictly through his project of Ultimate Reality and Meaning (URAM). In year 2000, my friend Dr. Neil Arya introduced me to Julia Johnson, one of the section editors of the Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning. He knew of her involvement in the URAM project. Neil felt that the URAM project would be of interest to me because of my involvement in the recent founding of Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc. (SHEN) – an organization dedicated to the promotion, development and delivery of education in the spiritual heritage of humanity. Julia just happened to be on sabbatical at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario from her home base in Saskatchewan. Waterloo, Ontario being the home town of both Neil and I, arranging a meeting with Julia did not take long. Julia told me about Professor Horvath, his URAM project, John Perry, and the Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning. She told me of the research orientation of the URAM project. Understanding the relationship between research and education, I at once decided to become part of the URAM project. I began to see the SHEN project as the educational counterpart of the URAM project focused on research. I knew that the aims and objects of the two projects could only be alike. It was much later when I realized that Professor Horvath’s original vision of the URAM project was much more comprehensive than commonly understood; it in fact, encompassed both researched and education. I briefly met Professor Horvath in 2001. I discovered who Professor Horvath was during the meeting of the board of the International Society for the Study Of Human Ideas about Ultimate Reality and Meaning on Friday, August 17, 2001; walked up to him and introduced myself saying how pleased I was to meet him. He acknowledged in his typical humility and that was the end of our meeting. My next and last meeting with him was on the evening of Sunday, August 7, 2004 when he was sick and confined to his residence. The agenda was the SHEN project of URAM based education in universal spirituality. I had written an article on the subject and I had e-mailed it to him ahead of the meeting. I was aware of some misunderstandings of my intentions about the URAM project, but we concluded the meeting with a warm bear hug, full understanding of the complimentary nature of the two projects, his whole-hearted support for the SHEN project, and his heartfelt blessings. I admire Professor Horvath because of the simplicity of his soul, his humility, his universal outlook, and, above all, his conception of the URAM project and his perception of the potentiality of this project. I admire him for the courage of his conviction in taking practical steps for actualizing this potential even if that meant reaching beyond the confines of his own theology, his own faith and his own church. To me, he was not merely a man of faith; he not only fulfilled it but also transcended it. He had a universal consciousness deeply rooted in the Ground and Purpose of being. Besides paying tribute to the late Professor Horvath, my purpose in writing this article is to present a personal perspective on the comprehensiveness of URAM, Professor Horvath’s vision of the URAM project and how this vision, in fact, contains and encompasses the SHEN project of education in the spiritual heritage of humanity. This heritage is comprised of the thinking and findings of people such as prophets, sages and seers who have spent their lives studying the nature of humankind and its relationships in the universe. These discoveries comprises spiritual heritage of humanity with the single purpose of unification. And URAM is the key.
