printer friendly | |||
|
The Teacher’s portrait |
Spiritual communication of Nicholas and Helena Roerichs with the Teacher started long before their actual meeting. The way of complicated spiritual search lay in its basis, which got reflection in Roerich’s book of poems “Morya’s Flowers”.
We are going to look for sacred
signs. We are walking cautiously and
in silence. People pass laughing,
calling to follow them. Others hurry
in discontent. <…>
But
They will pass threateningly. They
are so busy. And we
will look for sacred
signs.[13, p.14]
Signs, signifying the High Presence, light touches, breaking through the Cosmos separate words – all that the artist defined with the word “Call”.
Sometimes it seems that
the King’s word is sounding. But no,
the King’s words cannot be heard.
It is people who pass them
To each other <…>
Can I believe
them?[14, p.21-22]
Iranian epos “Shahname” and little cornelian birds
in a silver frame. The Teacher’s gifts to H. Roercih | |
The Teacher’s letter in Sanskrit written on birch-bark.
”Urusvati, in that country you will build the Temple” |
Then there were actual meetings with the Teachers – in London, in New York, in India. Portraits of the Teachers, made from the images kept is the Roerichs family, can be seen in the hall. “<…> many things that seem to us fantastic fiction and fairy-tales, beyond personal refraction, at the actual places of the events, get illuminated with special light of truth, Roerich wrote. – Majestic images of mahatmas do not pass before your eyes like ghosts, but like great creatures of body and blood, as real teachers of higher knowledge and power”[15, p.54]. Telling about them, Nicholas Roerich always showed a great sense of tact and care, remembering the ancient Eastern wisdom: one does not speak of the inmost.
In the show-case before the triptych, there are relics related to the Teacher: little cornelian birds in a silver frame, given by Him to Helena Roerich, the 16th century manuscript “Shahname” (“The Book of Kings”) by poet Abul Kasym Firdousi, also His gift. The ring of Egyptian queen Nifertiti, the wife of famous pharaoh Ehnaton, is one of the most mysterious exhibits of our Museum. A thin bronze thread with a turquoise scarab on which Nefertiti’s personal seal is carved – the ring dates back to the XIV century B. C.
Unusual is the Teacher’s letter on birch-bark addressed to Helena Roerich. Its Sanskrit text says: “Urusvati, in that country you will build a Temple”. Urusvati – “The Light of the Morning Star” – that is how the Teachers, Cosmic Hierarchs, called Helena Roerich.
“Her life was burning like a live light asserting with her example existence of a different, beautiful world, comprehension of which will lead the mankind to new achievements, new discoveries”[16, p.18], Helena Roerich’s sons wrote.
All her life, starting from 1920, Helena Roerich wrote down and systematized the Living Ethics. She was a collaborator of Great Teachers, but she always stayed a tender wife and caring mother. She was the leading one, the heart and the teacher in her family.
In the hall of the Teachers, there are a few drawings by Helena Roerich, performed in pencil: “Archangel Michael”, “Akbar”, “Niel Stolpnik”, “N. Roerich’s ancestor”, and other. Confident, expressive lines, bright images – evidence of Helena Roerich’s conscious contact with the worlds of higher states of matter, sketches of her visions. Many of them made the basis for Nicholas Roerich’s paintings. The artist often repeated that each of his paintings should be signed with two names – a man’s and a woman’s.
H. Roerich. Shri Shankaracharya. 1920s |
The drawing “A Great Temple for all” is about the single source of all religions. “<…> all philosophies, all religions went out of a Single Source, Helena Roerich wrote, and the same Great Intellects that brought the Light <…> at dawn of our humanity, continued bringing it throughout the whole course of the slow process of the human consciousness evolution. <…> It is awareness of Them that saturated the mentality of mankind with the Single Truth, brought by Them in attires of various philosophies and religions corresponding to their time <…> great mysteries-beauties are revealed to us when our consciousness comes to contact with the Light of Leading Minds”[17, p.493].
It is light and solemn in the hall of the Teachers. With radiance of a Different World’s Light, the artist’s painting “Fiat Rex” is sparkling. And silence sounds in hardly audible words of the Great Teacher:
When the raindrop taps upon the window –
it is My Sign!
When the bird flutters –
it is My Sign!
When the leaves are borne aloft by whirlwind –
it is My Sign!
When the ice is melted by the sun Солнце –
it is My Sign!
When the waves wash away the sorrow of the soul –
it is My Sign!
When the wing of illumination touches the harried soul –
it is My Sign!
Count the steps when you approach the Temple, because each seventh step carries my sign.
When you will manifest a new understanding of My sign, you will perceive the flash of the Worlds’ lightning.
I have opened the door to you, but only by yourself may you enter it.[18]
|
||
|