12.02.2022

Publication of archival materials from the IRMT Collection, 

dedicated to Birthday of Helena Roerich (1879-1955)

The main goal of Helena Roerich’s work in India was cooperation with a group of spiritual teachers (in Eastern tradition they are called Mahatmas – Great Souls) that are above us on the stairs of Cosmic evolution. They bring the knowledhe that the mankind can perceive at the moment.

This cooperation manifested itself in many forms and was documented in detail in her diary that she kept since March, 1920 till the end of her life. Her books on the philosophical teaching Living Ethics, or Agni Yoga, were compiled on the basis of these diaries. The books extensively covered the questions of the mankind’s Cosmic evolution and the particular qualities of its coming turn. 

According to this mindset, the Universe is a grandiose spirited system of energy that is evolving according to the Great Laws of the Cosmos. Apart from our solid world the Living Ethics also observed the worlds of different states of matter – Subtle world and Fiery world that are closely linked to each other and to the solid world of our planet. Combining the matter of these kinds the man is constantly interacting with these worlds. The nature of this interaction is defined by the level and the expansion of one’s mind.. “The man should feel his responsibility for the creation,” wrote the authors of the Living Ethics.

The books on this philosophical teaching were first published in Russian in 1924–1937 and were translated and printed in several languages during the lifetime of Helena Roerich. She personally checked the translations and, if necessary, made clarifications and corrections. In the archives of the IRMT there are typewritten sheets with her corrections to the translation of the book AUM (1936) from the series of Living Ethics.⁠

Click to enladge:

“The man elevated himself through his thought – and created a significant benevolence for someone. The man lost his spirit – and therefore might have destroyed someone.” According to the doctrine, “The feeling of responsibility should be developed infinitely. The spirit of a man, like the Creator, holds responsibility for all his deeds. We shall not be in fear of realizing the phenomenon of responsibility. We are responsible not only to ourselves, but also to the Cosmos.”

The versatile giftedness of her nature is evidenced by the drawings of Helena Roerich from the funds of the International Center of the Roerichs, Moscow. The exhibition of reproductions of these unusual drawings is presented in one of the halls of the Urusvati Institute at the IRMT, Naggar. The heroes of her sketches are sages, hermits and saints that dedicated their whole lives to serving the mankind and facilitating its transition into a higher evolutionary stage. The pictures are the result and evidence of Helena Roerich's contact with the worlds of higher states of matter.

Helena Roerich understood perfectly that the new mindset, reflected in the Living Ethics, or Agni Yoga would face many difficulties on its path, as well as open counteraction from the bearers of the old knowledge. But she knew that time would pass - and this philosophical teaching would enter into scientific circulation and “become the foundation of upbringing and creation of the new mankind”…