Agni yoga
For Roerich and his wife the Time Tantra contains a sparkling fire philosophy:
"This Teaching of Kalachakra, this utilization of the primary energy, has been called the Teaching of Fire. The Hindu peoples know the great Agni — ancient teaching though it be, it shall be the new teaching for the New Era. We must think of the future; and in the teaching of Kalachakra we know there lies all the material which may be applied for greatest use. […]
Kalachakra is the Teaching ascribed to the various Lords of Shambhala […]
But in reality this Teaching is the Great Revelation brought to humanity at the dawn of its conscious evolution in the third race of the fourth cycle of Earth by the Lords of Fire, the Sons of reason who were an are the Lords of Shambhala”
(Reigle, 1986, p. 38).
The interpretation which the Russian couple give to the Kalachakra Tantra in their numerous publications may be described without any exaggeration as a “pyromaniac obsession”. For them, fire becomes an autocratic primary substance that dissolves all in its flames. It functions as the sole creative universal principle.
All the other elements, out of the various admixtures of which the variety of life arises, disappear in the flaming process of creation:
“Do not seek the creative fire in the inertia of earth, in the seething waves of water, in the storms of the air.
(H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. I, p. 5).
Keep away from the other “elements” as “they do not love fire”
(H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. I, p. 7).
Only the “fiery world” brings blessing. Everyone carries the “sparks of the fiery world in their hearts”
(H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. II, p. 8).
This announces itself through “fiery signs”. “Rainbow flames” confirm the endeavors of the spirit. But only after a “baptism of fire” do all the righteous proceed with “flaming hearts” to the “empire of the fiery world” in which there are no shadows. They are welcomed by “fire angels”.
“The luminosity of every part of the fiery world generates an everlasting radiance”
(H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. II, p. 8).
The “song of fire sounds like the music of the spheres”
(H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. II, p. 8).
At the center of this world lies the “supreme fire”. Since the small and the large cosmos are one, the “fiery chakras” of the individual humans correspond to “the fiery structures of space”
(H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. I, p. 240).
This fire cult is supposed to be ancient and in the dim and distant past its shrines already stood in the Himalayas:
"Beyond the Kanchenjunga are old menhirs of the great sun cult. Beyond the Kanchenjunga is the birthplace of the sacred Swastika, sign of fire. Now in the day of Agni Yoga, the element of fire is again entering the spirit.”
(N. Roerich, 1985, p. 36, 37).
Madame Blavatsky’s above-mentioned god of electricity, Fohat, is also highly honored by the Roerichs.
The Roerichs’ fiery philosophy is put into practice through a particular sacred system which is called Agni Yoga. We were unable to determine the degree to which it follows the traditions of the already described Sadanga Yoga, practiced in the Kalachakra Tantra. Agni Yoga gives the impression that is conducted more ethically and with feelings than technically and with method. Admittedly the Roerich texts also talk of an unchaining of the kundalini (fire serpent), but nowhere is there discussion of sexual practices. In contrast, the philosophy of the two Russians requires strict abstinence and is antagonistic to everything erotic.In 1920 the first Agni Yoga group was founded by the married couple.
The teachings, we learn, come from the East , indeed direct from the mythical kingdom:
"And Asia when she speaks the Blessed Shambhala, about Agni Yoga, about the Teaching of Flame, knows that the holy spirit of flame can unite the human hearts in a resplendent evolution”
(N. Roerich, 1985, p. 294).Agni Yoga is supposed to join the great world religions together and serve as a common basis for them.
With great regret the Roerichs discover that the people do not listen to the “fiery tongues” that speak to them and want to initiate them into the secrets of the flames. They appropriated only the external appearances of the force of fire, like electricity, and otherwise feared the element. Yet the “space fire demands revelation” and whoever closes out its voice will perish in the flames (H. I. Roerich, 1980, p. 30).
Even if it is predicted in the cosmic plan, the destruction of all dark and ignorant powers does not happen by itself. It needs to be accelerated by the forces of good. It is a matter of victory and defeat, of heroic courage and sacrificial death.Here is the moment in which the figure of the Shambhala warriors steps into the plan and battles with the inexorably advancing Evil which wants to extinguish Holy Flame:
“They shall come — the extinguishers; they shall come — the destroyers; they shall come — the powers of darkness. Corrosion that has already begun cannot be checked”
(H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. I, p. 124).
