12.02.2023

Birthday of Helena Roerich at the Roerichs Estate (Naggar)

A solemn event was held on the 12th of February at the International Roerich Memorial Trust to celebrate the 144th anniversary of the birth of the world-famous philosopher Helena Roerich, a Russian woman who by her life and the light of her heart showed to mankind the path to the heights of the Spirit. 

«There, in a secluded villa located on a hillside above the village of Naggar, the work was going on, hidden from prying eyes, but having the most important meaning for our Planet and its future. <...> There the Future was taking shape, a New World was being created and the necessary conditions for the emergence of a New Man were being prepared. There Evolution itself was operating, there the foundations of a new way of thinking of humanity of the 20th century were being laid, the energy basis of its Transformation and the expansion of its Consciousness was being laid». 

The festive day began with the laying of flower garlands of marigolds on the bronze busts of Helena Roerich and Niсholas Roerich, installed near their House on the estate. 

Amarjeet Anand, a representative of the Indian administration of IRMT, said in his speech that Helena Roerich was a Russian woman by birth, but like all the Roerichs, she considered India her second homeland. The combination of the greatest cultural and philosophical achievements of the East and the West formed the basis of the Agni Yoga, which was created by her together with the Teachers of the East.

For Helena Roerich, the period of life in the Kullu Valley was extremely important. Lyudmila Shaposhnikova, General Director of the Non-Governmental Museum Named after Nicholas Roerich, wrote: 

Valentina Vinogradova, assistant of Russian curator of IRMT, noted that many of Helena Roerich`s works were created in Kullu, at the Roerichs' estate, in her study with a magnificent view of the Himalayan peaks. It is no coincidence that she was elected Honorary President of the «Urusvati» Himalayan Research Institute, which opened new paths in science and philosophy.

On the birthday of Helena Roerich, an exhibition entitled «She Who Leads» was opened in the IRMT Conference Hall, where guests of the estate could peruse books from the IRMT's Modern Library for several weeks. The selection of literature included works by Helena Roerich and some books that she especially appreciated and recommended for reading to her staff and friends.

The exhibition also featured books translated into Russian by Helena Roerich. Among them was the book «Mahatma Letters». Some chapters of «Letters» were included in the book «The Cup of the East», published in Riga in 1925. Helena Roerich noted in one of her letters: «Certainly, the Letters of the Mahatma are the book, which should be widely disseminated in the near future, for it is necessary to move the consciousness of mankind, which has come to a dead end».  

At the exhibition readers could also read the writings of Helena Blavatsky, Russian woman, who, in a difficult and sacrificial feat of life, was the first to bring the message of the East to the West. «The Secret Doctrine», her main and monumental work, which laid the foundations of the cosmic worldview, was brilliantly translated from English into Russian by Helena Roerich.

The exhibition featured the Bhagavad-Gita, part of the great heroic poem, the Mahabharata. Helena Roerich called this book among those that played an important role in her acquaintance with the philosophy of the East. One of her favorite sayings was Krishna's words from the Bhagavad-Gita: «Mankind comes to Me in different ways, but whichever way one approaches Me, on that path I welcome him, for all paths belong to Me.»

Among her first earthly teachers, Helena Roerich named the great ascetics of India: Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. She wrote: «The bright face of Ramakrishna and the clear mind of Swami Vivekananda sounded in my heart as a powerful call to spiritual synthesis. Of Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna's most famous disciple, she said: «He marked the beginning of a real rapprochement between the East and the West. For the first time the great foundations of the Hindu worldview, the Great Foundations of Living Ethics, were clearly and cordially expounded to the West. «In the coming century Russia will lead the world. But India will show the way,» these words were spoken by Swami Vivekananda at the very beginning of the 20th century.

«Also beautiful are Sister Nivedita's books about India and about Swami Vivekananda, who was her teacher,» noted Helena Roerich. Books by Sister Nivedita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, could be seen at the exhibition. Margaret Elizabeth Noble was born in Ireland, but her heart and devotion to her teacher led her to serve in India, to which she devoted her entire life. 

In the twentieth century, contrary to Kipling's famous words, «West is West, East is East – they will never meet,» more and more Western thinkers turned their eyes to the East in search of answers to the age-old questions of Genesis. Among them is the French writer Romain Rolland, who was one of the first to support the international Roerich Pact to protect culture. Guests of the exhibition could read his book «The Universal Gospel of Vivekananda».

Western philosophy was represented by the book «On the Beginnings» by the 3rd century Alexandrian theologian Origen, whom Elena Hoerich called «the Great Light of true Christianity». 

The exhibition was seen by many guests from all over India, who read the books on display with great interest. Many guests from Russia also visited the exhibition. 

The teachings of Living Ethics, or Agni Yoga, were the culmination of the consonance of ideas of thinkers of the East and the West, striving for higher ideals. The exhibition featured contemporary editions in several languages, including Russian, English, Italian, Lithuanian, and others. Visitors could also see the letters of Helena Roerich, which were sent from the Himalayan valley to the most remote corners of the world to employees and correspondents, thirsty for light and truth. To them Helena Roerich tirelessly explained the most difficult questions of spiritual life.

Lyudmila Shaposhnikova wrote about Helena Roerich: «The more time passes and the deeper we penetrate into the meaning of the heroic works of Helena Roerich, the clearer the great meaning of what she and those who stood close to her do manifest and will manifest itself. The legacy they left us is inexhaustible. It has only touched the edges of our era in time, it is directed by its scientific, artistic discoveries to the World to Come, to that New World for which heroic creativity, connecting worlds of different states of matter for the sake of humanity's evolutionary advancement, will be not the exception but the rule. This is what the great Russian woman, mother of her sons and wife of her husband, Helena Roerich, suffered and worked hard for».