AGNI YOGA
Review by Roza and Margarita Riaikkenen
Yet again we are turning the pages of the books of Agni Yoga. Like many times before, at the turning moments of our personal life or of the world around us, we are searching in these books for solace, encouragement and wisdom. And we are finding all we searched for and much more.
Agni Yoga, which is known also as the teaching of Living Ethics, is a series of books recorded by Helena Roerich, channeled from her spiritual Teacher. The books were dictated to Helena Roerich starting from 1920 and were recorded for more than a decade, presumably until 1938. Agni Yoga operates with the finest fiery energy of the universe – Agni.
Helena Roerich, the wife and collaborator of a renowned artist Nicolas Roerich, was a remarkable representative of Russian mystics in the line to which Helena Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, belonged. There are other similarities between two Helenas besides their names. Both of them were Russian women who received some of their esoteric experience and knowledge in the Himalayas area, and both had the same Ascended Master as their spiritual Teacher.
Agni Yoga is a teaching of spiritual philosophy, a teaching of synthesis that embraces science, ethics, arts and culture, as Oriental as Western, from the point of view of esoteric knowledge. It gives a multi-facet view of life, as on Earth as in different places and dimensions of the universe, and lights up many aspects of universal Truth.
The very goal of Agni Yoga is to show us the way of inner transformation and evolution into the higher state of spirituality. You can just open any of the books and find advice on your spiritual path, on health and spiritual practice, on your possible psychological problem with explanation how it is connected with the current world condition, and much more.
Agni Yoga doesn’t feed us with niceties, but we can find there keys to a lot of our questions. It is a rigorous teaching of selflessness, courage, compassion and sacrifice. And also of collaboration and co-creation. Of collective action and personal heroism, of scientific discoveries and self-discovery, of aspiration and achievement. And also of Joy from the participation in this inspirational work, spiritual joy, fiery joy: “Understand the beneficence of fiery joy. It expands the consciousness, and draws all the best accumulations toward itself, as a fiery magnet. The essence of man is transformed and his outworn nature is burned away” (Supermundane IV).
This is a teaching of esoteric science, with its strict laws and mechanisms, with the abundance of treasures of wisdom here and there. And the Heart (the Heart Chalice behind the physical heart), full of Love energy, is proclaimed as the source of everything a human being is able to achieve.
Agni Yoga gives us also some glimpses into the future of humanity, and it is of particular interest because the Master is speaking from the strata of existence where time is different than here in our Solid World. His position therefore allows him to see the future much more clearly than us, though we also have the potential to become conscious observers and co-creators of the future. However, “Only devotion and understanding of the wisdom of the Plan insure the reality of the pictures of the future” (Leaves of Morya’s Garden , Illumination). Understanding of the Plan helps us to become aware of the wholeness and meaningfulness of our life with its past, present and future.
It is impossible to cover in a review all the aspects of Agni Yoga. But there is a possibility for everyone to read and enjoy it in its fullness, either as a hard copy or by downloading it from the webpage of Agni Yoga Society at (www.agniyoga.org). We highly recommend these books for a spiritual student and also for anyone interested in understanding the working of the world.